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"The Nordic Region can be more integrated than the EU"

"We are in such close agreement in the Nordic Region that we can take our co-operation far further than the European Union," the Danish Minister for Nordic Co-operation, Bertel Haarder, told the annual Session of the Nordic Council on Thursday. Haarder wants to use the historian Gunnar Wetterberg's proposal for a new Nordic Union as a provocative inspiration to closer Nordic co-operation.

Oct 29, 2009
Bertel Haarder

Bertel Haarder, the Danish Minister for Nordic Co-operation, thinks that the Nordic countries have so much in common that the Region is capable of closer integration than the European Union.

Photographer
Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org

Wetterberg's opinion piece in Dagens Nyheter on Tuesday has sparked off a debate in the entire Nordic Region. On Thursday Siv Friðleifsdóttir (Iceland) mentioned the article in question time with the ministers for Nordic co-operation at the Session in Stockholm.

"I found Wetterberg's piece refreshing. If you read the whole article you'll see that he was right about a lot of things. I'd like to know what the views of the Danish minister, a good, solid proponent of Nordic partnership, are on this matter," Friðleifsdóttir said.

Everybody interested in Nordic co-operation must have been inspired by Wetterberg to ask whether we can make further progress.

Haarder replied that he had read the article with great interest.
"In the Nordic Region we have observed that an EU of 27 – and perhaps later 30 – member states includes countries that are so different from each other that they cannot possibly work together on everything. Everybody interested in Nordic co-operation must have been inspired by Wetterberg to ask whether we can make further progress, in addition to strengthening each other within the EU," Haarder responded.

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