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Nordic Region capable of going further than the EU

“The Nordic co-operation model is capable of going far further than the EU model, Gunnar Wetterberg told a Centre Group seminar held in the Norwegian parliament, Monday April 12.

Apr 12, 2010

Photographer: Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org

Video: The future of Nordic co-operation with Gunnar Wetterberg.

"The EU comes nowhere close to what Nordic Union could achieve,” the Swedish historian Gunnar Wetterberg told the Nordic Council Centre Group on Monday, while stressing that the two models are complimentary rather than contradictory.

Wetterberg presented his ideas for a Nordic Union or federal state and claimed that the Nordic model still has plenty of unexploited potential. He does not think that the EU will make the kind of progress in the next two generations that a federal Nordic state would be capable of achieving.

Several members of the Centre group expressed reservations about the idea based on the history of previous unions in the Region.

"If you aim for the stars, at least you’ll land in the treetops,” Wetterberg countered.

Dagfinn Høybråten agrees with Wetterberg about the unexploited Nordic potential.

"The potential inherent in Nordic co-operation is massively underrated, especially by Nordic politicians. I think we’ve been too focused on looking past the Nordic Region and not ‘at’ it. The time is ripe for a new look at Nordic co-operation and how to improve it,” said Høybråten, who identified co-operation on defence and security as an important subject for future partnership. Høybråten also thinks that the consensus principle in Nordic co-operation should be reconsidered.

The consensus practice was a barrier also addressed by Lars Hovbakke Sørensen of Aarhus University at the seminar, when he presented five proposals to rejuvenate Nordic partnership.

"The partnership has to be made binding. We need to drop consensus in favour of majority decisions. They endow greater legitimacy,” he pointed out.

The academic also called for the Nordic Council committee structure to mirror the EU’s committees, for direct elections to the Nordic Council, for the establishment of one or more Nordic universities and for better schooling in Nordic history and co-operation so future generations understand the significance of partnership in the Region.

Gunnar Wetterberg and Lars Hovbakke Sørensen were taking part in the Centre Group seminar on the future of Nordic relations held in the Norwegian parliament in Oslo in the run up to the Nordic Council’s April meetings, 13-14 April.