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Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

The objective of the Nordic Council's co-operation with the Baltic Assembly is to work towards a democratic, economic and cultural development of the Baltic Sea Region and northern Europe and to work actively to bring the region's opportunities and challenges out in the open.

The Nordic countries had established a co-operation with the three Baltic States even before they gained their independence in the summer of 1991. Five MPs from the Nordic Council visited the Baltic capitals and Moscow in October 1990. The Nordic Council invited Baltic MPs to attend the Session at the beginning of 1991. The Nordic Council attended the Baltic Assembly's first meeting in Tallinn. In 1992, a formal agreement of co-operation was adopted. It has since been updated several times. The co-operation has entered into a new phase since the three countries became members of the EU in 2004, but there is still close contact between the Nordic Council and the Baltic Assembly. The contacts take place between the Presidiums and the policy committees.

Important themes are integration in the Baltic Sea Region; to help to build bridges to the EU's eastern neighbours and, on the whole, to work together to deal with the challenges facing northern Europe. There has been co-operation on culture, research and education, the environment - not least the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea - infrastructure, labour market matters and trafficking with people for prostitution, amongst other things.

Since 2006 there has been an annual summit meeting between the Presidiums of the two organisations to assess the results of the joint projects. The latest summit meeting was held in December 2011 in Reykjavik. Furthermore, theme conferences and seminars are organised, especially for the policy committees.

Contact

Torkil Sørensen
Phone: +45 24 69 94 57
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