Address by Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja: "The cooperation between the Nordic countries"

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja
Nordic Twin City Meeting
Kerava
3 June, 2004





Bästa nordiska vänner, Dear Nordic Friends,

Your presence at this Twin City Meeting indicates that Nordic cooperation lives and flourishes in informal contexts, that is, not as a government activity. Your choice of English as your common means of communication may seem to run counter to Scandinavian traditions but is certainly pragmatic. And it could also open doors to contacts with non-Nordic neighbours.

In fact, traditional Nordic cooperation today stands at a turning point. Our region has changed dramatically. Today, eight Member States of the European Union are bordering the Baltic Sea. The enlargement of the EU brought to an end the division of Europe and will further strengthen democracy, stability and prosperity on the continent, inside the enlarged Union and beyond.

Norway and Iceland are closely connected with European affairs through the EEA Agreement. So where should we look these days - towards the group of five Nordic countries, towards the Baltic Sea region including Russia, or simply towards Brussels?

In a survey carried out about a week ago in Denmark, Norway and Sweden by the Danish People's Movement against the EU, citizens were asked whether they preferred Nordic cooperation to membership of the EU. In all three countries, more intensified Nordic cooperation was preferred to EU cooperation.

The questions were, arguably, put in a leading manner. But there is no reason to doubt the value that citizens continue to put in Nordic cooperation. The mistake is to present Nordic cooperation and European integration as alternatives to each other, let alone mutually exclusive. They are not alternatives but complement each other.

But within Europe, regions and sub-regions form a basic network. Northern Europe has a special tradition of regional cooperation. There are probably more regional organs of cooperation at the intergovernmental or other levels, including that of Nordic Twin Cities, than in any other region in Europe. These networks can be extremely useful.

Among the organs of cooperation in our region, the Nordic Council can be considered to be the principal one. Founded in 1952, it became a meeting place for parliamentarians and governments of the five Nordic countries. Since there has been, from the beginning, true dialogue between parliaments and governments, it has been possible to work out concrete measures, such as the Nordic labour market, the Passports Union, and a common social security system. Nordic integration has taken many groundbreaking leaps and quickly reached a level to which the European Union has only recently arrived.

It is sometimes argued that European integration now supersedes the Nordic arrangements. This is true to a certain extent, but the Nordic governments wish to have an edge on the EU.

These ambitions are reflected in, for example, the ongoing work to reduce administrative obstacles to the free movement of people among the Nordic countries. This is called the Norrback - Schlüter process, carrying the names of the Finnish ambassador and former minister Ole Norrback, who made a report on the bureaucratic problems that many citizens face when they move from one Nordic country to another, and of the Danish former Premier Poul Schlüter who has been urging the Nordic administrations to achieve improvements.

The work is yielding results. To name just one: a new system will enable people to get a social security number without delay when arriving in a new country of residence. In addition, progress has been made in the negotiations concerning bilateral administrative problems. Last October, a tax agreement was signed between Sweden and Denmark. Since the agreement there has been a significant increase in the number of people who live on one side of the Öresund and work on the other.

And the Nordic countries want to go further in making the region a truly integrated home market. The Nordic ministers of finance just decided to begin a process of dismantling the remaining obstacles to economic and business operations among the Nordic countries.

The Nordic economies are increasingly integrated, and trade between our countries is important in spite of the open doors to Europe. Forest industry and banking have strengthened through Nordic fusions. In some cases, Norway has obviously reluctantly transferred ownership of important companies into the hands of foreign owners. The Finnish energy company Fortum, which owns Stockholm's power supply, was recently denied the purchase of Oslo's municipal Hafslund company. In my view, a nation's crown jewels - be they rivers, mountains or infrastructure - need not be for sale. When national capital fortresses no longer exist, national public ownership has a responsible role to play.

Intra-Nordic governmental cooperation is today based on the work of the Nordic Council of Ministers, which meets in about 18 different formations. Almost half of the Nordic cooperation budget of 810 million DKK is dedicated to culture, education and research, areas that, on one hand, strengthen the Nordic identity - which is very important in today's globalised world – and, on the other, improve our capacity to engage in scientific research and produce technological advances. Individually, we are small, but together we have a possibility to retain and improve our competitiveness. The NORIA project, launched last year by professor Gustav Björkstrand of Åbo Akademi, is precisely intended to promote Nordic research and inventive capacity.

In addition to the formal cooperation within the Nordic Council of Ministers, there are a multitude of other Nordic contacts. Nordic prime ministers meet regularly, and so do ministers for foreign affairs and ministers of defence. Foreign policy and security policy questions are constantly debated among Nordic ministers or senior officials. In most cases, the aim is to exchange views and useful information, but in some instances - in particular in contacts between Sweden and Finland - common positions or proposals on foreign and security policy matters have been issued.
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Cooperation between the Nordic countries has been successful in the sense that we have been able to adjust the focus of our cooperation to the changing circumstances. In the 1950s and 1960s, during the Cold War, there was an obvious need for close ties between our countries. As European integration advanced, Denmark entered the EEC, and the other Nordic countries concluded the Efta agreement instead of forming a Nordic economic union (Nordek). By the year 1990, when the Baltic states regained their independence from the Soviet Union, Nordic cooperation assumed a new task, that of supporting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

For over a decade now, Nordic intergovernmental cooperation has focused on the adjacent areas in the east, that is, the Baltic States and Northwest Russia. Some 20 per cent of the Nordic cooperation budget has been allocated to programmes and projects in the region. The activities range from environmental problems to road safety. A major component has been exchange programmes through which pupils, students, artists and civil servants have been able to visit or work in other Nordic countries.

The entry of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the European Union last month was a milestone in the history of our region. Looking further south, Poland completes the picture. The new EU Member States are equal partners in the Baltic Sea region with all its challenges and benefits. We will have to continue to address matters, such as the pollution and eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, the increasing oil transport, road and energy networks, and problems related to infectious diseases, drug abuse, trafficking and organised crime.

On the other hand, the Baltic Sea region is one of strong academic traditions and of rapid economic growth. We will have to make joint efforts to ensure the region's continued progress and competitiveness.

This is the reason why intra-Nordic cooperation is not, or cannot be, enough. We have a definite interest in dealing with the challenges and benefits of the Baltic Sea region. And it goes without saying that Russia, though having the shortest shoreline, is an important partner in all cooperation around the Baltic Sea.

The five Nordic countries are active members of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), which includes all the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. Important environmental aspects are dealt with in the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, also known as the Helsinki Commission. In addition, regional matters are promoted through the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and the Arctic Council (AC). Russia is a member of all these organisations.

Our relations to Russia - the largest and most important neighbour of the Nordic countries and the EU - are thus bilateral, Nordic, regional and European. Bilateral and joint Nordic programmes of cooperation with Russia will continue, but the main forum of cooperation with Russia is the European Union.

The EU is elaborating a new European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which covers all neighbouring areas from the northeast to the Mediterranean - "from Murmansk to Marrakech" as the saying goes. The EU-Russia relations are based on a Partnership Agreement and cooperation in the framework of the four common spaces, as confirmed in the EU-Russia Summit in Moscow two weeks ago.

In addition, there is the EU’s Northern Dimension policy. Launched by Finland in 1997, the Northern Dimension is part of the EU external relations and cross-border policies. Now that the Baltic States and Poland have entered the EU, the Northern Dimension's principal focus is on northwest Russia. This is the main framework for wide-ranging cooperation including infrastructure.

Financiers include the European Investment Bank, the Nordic Investment Bank and the EU instruments TACIS, Interreg and Phare. The Nordic Council of Ministers, CBSS and other regional organs take responsibility for their share in implementing Northern Dimension projects. In the partnerships established under the Northern Dimension - on the environment and on public health and social welfare - Russia has the status of an equal partner.

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But for the Nordic countries, the European Union is more than a channel of cooperation with Russia or an instrument promoting the Baltic Sea region. By becoming Member States of the EU we have decided to advance our national interests in Brussels. Finland wishes to promote the creation of a well-functioning and more efficient union with clear mandates of competence for the community institutions. We advocate a constitutional treaty that strengthens the fundamental rights and improves the control of the principle of subsidiarity to the benefit of the Member States.

Nordic cooperation in EU affairs actually began already when Denmark entered the EEC. It expanded significantly when Finland and Sweden became Member States of the EU in 1995. Nordic cooperation in the EU has produced some tangible results, the most significant of which is the inclusion of Norway and Iceland in the Schengen agreement. Thanks to this, the Nordic freedom of movement without the obligation to show one’s passport was preserved.

Since 2001, the Finnish, Swedish and Danish prime ministers regularly meet before each European Council meeting. Similar informal consultations are held also before other Council meetings, especially those concerning general affairs and external relations, environmental, consumer or gender affairs. At present, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania participate in the Nordic EU consultations and thus the talks are between 3+3 countries. Norway and Iceland are kept informed also of these discussions.

This is a practical ad hoc way of working. In the enlarged European Union, regional contacts and support from states with similar interests will become increasingly important. It is natural that Member States are looking for support for their aims among like-minded nations. The fact that EU governments meet regularly in different groups and formations to discuss EU issues is nothing new or exceptional and it has proved to be useful.

In addition, in the Union of twenty-five it is essential to exert influence at an early stage. National positions must be presented early and support for them must be sought. Of course, coalitions are formed on the basis of similarity of interests, and their composition may change from time to time, but the 3+3 Nordic-Baltic group constitutes a natural point of departure. Expanding the 3+3 group to Poland and Germany might be useful when dealing with questions of particular concern for the Baltic Sea region.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have given you a panoramic view of Nordic cooperation, from the traditional intra-Nordic level up to today's perspectives of a vast European Union and its neighbours. Nordic concerns go even further. We have for decades been active members of the United Nations, participated in joint peacekeeping activities and in development cooperation in distant countries.

We need to look after our own countries, our situation and our problems, because no one does it as well as we do, but at the same time we need to be open to our region, to Europe and to the world.



































































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