The EU, Russia, Iceland and Norway today launched a brand new collaborative venture in the arts and culture. The Northern Dimension Cultural Partnership creates a hub for networking, projects and cultural activities throughout the north of Europe. The agreement is the latest manifestation of the Nordic countries' strong commitment to co-operation with the EU and Russia.  

"This agreement expresses the real, strong and ambitious political will that exists to improve the development potential in the intersection between culture and business," said Snjólaug Ólafsdóttir on behalf of the Icelandic Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

She continued:

"The Northern Dimension Cultural Partnership is designed to help bridge the gap between culture and business in the Region. The objective is to accelerate development of the creative economy. It will provide input at national and international level on the development of financial instruments to fund the creative industries," she explained.

The role of the Nordic Council of Ministers' within the cultural partnership is to create synergies with other work being done to promote creative industries, work that includes the KreaNord initiative to raise the profile of the Nordic Region as a global leader.

The Northern Dimension serves as an over-arching political framework for co-operation between the EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland. The Nordic Council of Ministers has played an important role in the development of the cultural partnership, and the Council of Ministers' Secretariat will also act as secretariat for the partnership in 2010.

The Northern Dimension Cultural Partnership will also serve as the framework for the new cultural initiatives laid down in the action plan for the recently adopted EU Baltic Sea Strategy.

Further information:

Anna Enemark
Senior Advisor for the arts
Tel.: +45 33 96 03 80

Anna Enemark
Phone +45 29 69 29 23
Email anen@norden.org

Ane Kofod Petersen
Phone +45 3396 0254
Email akp@norden.org