Kimmo Sasi elected President of the Nordic Council 2012
The autumn Session of the Nordic Council has elected Kimmi Sasi as President of the Council for 2012, when it is the turn of his native Finland to hold the post. Silvia Modig has been elected Vice-President.
- Photographer
- Johannes Jansson/norden.org
"In the current troubled economic climate we need to work together to safeguard prosperity and the Nordic welfare model. We should also seek to improve the model by working even more closely together and learning from each other. We need to remember that the Nordic brand is a really strong one, so we should be able to make Nordic best practices a high-quality export commodity," Sasi says.
Sasi, a member of the Finnish National Coalition Party and of the Conservative Group on the Nordic Council, is particularly keen to boost the Nordic welfare-model brand. He will also prioritise the Arctic and freedom of movement.
"We can't go on telling citizens that in one Nordic country they are classified as invalids but in another they have to go through a process of labour-market rehabilitation in order to qualify for a pension. Nor can we go on telling pregnant women that have to give birth on a particular side of the border, or fathers that they have to work in a particular country in order to be eligible for paternity allowance," he adds. Sasi also stresses that it is incumbent upon parliamentarians, especially members of the Nordic Council, to keep an eye on cross-border problems like these and support creative solutions to them.
Increasing importance of the Arctic
According to Sasi, changes in the Arctic will bring great opportunities to the Nordic Region. All of the Nordic countries have drawn up Arctic strategies in recent years, and the rest of the world has shown increasing interest in the development of the area.
"The Nordic countries play a major role in the Arctic Council. It is important that we continue to support it as the main organisation for international co-operation in the Arctic. To that end, it is particularly important that we collectively support the work to transform the Council into an autonomous international organisation with its own budget. The decision to establish a secretariat in Tromsø was an important step in that direction."
Sasi also notes that the EU, which has drawn up its own Arctic policy, can help to give the Arctic a stronger position at global level.
"Another important step would be to implement the proposal for an Arctic Information Centre for the EU in Rovaniemi."
Contacts
Heidi Orava
Phone
+45 33 96 04 60
Email
heor@norden.org
