The Nordic Council member for Åland, Barbro Sundback, proposed establishing a Sami state at Thursday’s meeting of the Barents Parliamentary meeting.

“The creation of an automonous Sami country for the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Samis is a natural extention of the Nordic Sami convention,” said Barbro Sundback. In this way the Sami traditions, local customs and language can be better preserved and the struggle against the majority populations will be avoided.

Sven Roald Nystø, President for the Norwegian Sami parliament said that he had registered the proposal and commented that it is not currently on the political agenda.

He criticised the Nordic Council for the fact that the Sami are not members but only have the status of observers in the council.

“We must be included under the same conditions if we are to be good members of society and have influence on political decisions," said Nystø who called for more help for the Russian Sami too.

Ann Mari Thomassen, another member of the Norwegian Sami parliament, proposed a quota for Russian Sami in higher education programmes in Russia.