7 Nordic Tales

In April, a Nordic Globalisation Forum will be held in Riksgränsen, Sweden, under the heading A Competitive Nordic Region in A Globalised World. The issue will remain high on the Nordic agenda of the future.Our countries have taken a huge step forward into a world characterised by change. The Adjacent Areas are developing and reforming, the EU is growing and countries like China and India are now major players on the world stage. Acting as one in the EU, the UN and other international organisations makes the most of our joint strengths.It is important that we work together on the issues of today and of the future, that we have clear goals in mind, and that we focus on the areas where we will have the greatest impact on actual outcomes, which is exactly how our Nordic inter-parliamentary and inter-governmental partnerships already function.But what does all this mean for Nordic citizens and companies? What does Nordic co-operation mean for a family that is about to move from one Nordic country to another and wants to transfer its child benefit entitlement? What does it mean for a Belarussian student whose university has been closed down and who has to study in exile? What does it mean for people who have money stashed in tax havens like the Isle of Man?This is just a small sample of the huge range of ideas, projects, stories, papers, meetings, initiatives and hours spent working late into the night that Nordic co-operation generated in 2007.