Financing

There is a special distribution plan which specifies how much each country will contribute to the Nordic budget to run co-operation in the Nordic Council, the Nordic Council of Ministers and in the Nordic institutions which receive monies from the Nordic budget.

The total annual budget for the Nordic Council is about DKK 33 million and the budget for the Nordic Council of Ministers is slightly more than DKK 967,5 million. This means that Nordic co-operation costs no more that about DKK 40 per head in the Nordic countries. This is cheap international co-operation.

More than one third of the Nordic Council of Ministers' budget goes to funding the Nordic institutions. Several institutions are funded fully or partially in this way. The Nordic governments are direct financial contributors as well as sources completely outside the public sector.

For example, the Nordic Film & TV Fund, which administers the Nordic Film Prize, is funded in equal part by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Nordic Film Institute, and a number of both social and private TV companies in the Nordic countries.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been co-owners of the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) since 2005. NIB lends money to projects which boost competitiveness and improve the environment both in the owner countries and in other parts of the world. The bank's capital is guaranteed by the eight countries according to a special prearranged distribution whereby Sweden vouches for the most and Estonia for the least.

The popular co-operation in the Nordic Association, membership of which is open to Nordic citizens, is financed by membership fees, grants from the Nordic governments, support from the Nordic Council of Ministers, from bilateral fund and other sources.