BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/12/2007

Good year for the Nordic Region

Dagfinn Hoybraten MP, leader of the Christian People's Party in Norway, has served as President of the Nordic Council 2007. He will be succeeded by the former Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja, in 2008. Hoybraten visited the Nordic Council Secretariat in Copenhagen just before Christmas, and took the opportunity to look back on a good year for the Region.

"I set myself two priorities for my year as President: climate change and the far north. We had plenty of help. In fact, I can't remember a year in which world opinion has turned so decisively. The summit held in conjunction with the Nordic Council Session in Oslo concentrated on the climate issues people consider the most important."

Progress has also been made towards another priority, i.e. more open borders in the Nordic Region.

"Nordic co-operation has to prove it is important to the individual citizen, so I was pleased when agreement was reached that Ole Norrback will co-ordinate high-level efforts to do something about the remaining obstacles to cross-border freedom of movement between the Nordic countries. I met with the Nordic prime ministers in Finland in June, where the foundations were lain for agreement that the former ambassador and minister will report directly to them."

The job as President of the Nordic Council also involves a great deal of international activity. One of Hoybraten's aims was to promote greater solidarity in the Nordic Region, so he was delighted by a seminar held in Vilnius in the autumn, which brought together the government and opposition from Belarus as well as Nordic and Baltic ministers. A follow-up is planned in spring 2008.

"Minsk is only two hours from Oslo by plane. It is, in other words, part of our local area. Nordic involvement in Belarus could assume the same level of importance as our initiatives in the Baltic States around the time when they regained their independence in 1991," the President concluded.

Source:

http://www.norden.org/webb/news/news.asp?id=7558&lang=6