http://www.norden.org/norden_i_veckan/uk/index.asp ___________________________ Streamlining Nordic
co-operation Press
release:
http://www.norden.org/webb/pressrelease/pressrelease.asp?id=1239 The Danish Presidency of
Nordic Council of Ministers 2005: http://www.norden2005.um.dk/da Culture ministers call
for change Cultural institutions to
close Reactions
to the proposal::
http://www.norden.org/kultur/stuktur/sk/kommentar.asp The
structure report::
http://www.norden.org/kultur/sk/dok21_arbejdsgruppe_rapport.pdf ‘OPEC’ for fish? New technology
improves road safety Nordic co-operation
on flu vaccine Restrictions
eased on travel to Bornholm The Danish Presidency of
Nordic Council of Ministers 2005: http://www.norden2005.um.dk/da Arctic co-operation
high up agenda
Norden this week - Monday
20.06.2005
The Nordic governments have decided to
streamline co-operation and simplify the structure of the Nordic Council
of Ministers. The number of Council of Ministers will be cut from 18 to
11.
“The reform is designed to concentrate energy on political
priorities and promote efficiency and tangible results. Nordic
co-operation must generate added value - Nordic synergy – in every
sector. Nowadays, ministers and politicians are bombarded with
invitations to attend international meetings and conferences, so it is
absolutely crucial for the future of Nordic co-operation that meetings
feel relevant, specific and efficient. In that sense, the proposed
simplification and streamlining of the structure also safeguards the
future of Nordic co-operation, which acts as an important regional forum
in a European framework,” the Danish Minister for Nordic Cooperation,
Connie Hedegaard, said about the new proposal. Denmark has prioritised
modernisation as part of its programme for the Presidency of the Nordic
Council of Ministers 2005.
In future, the Nordic Council of
Ministers will concentrate on 10 sectors:
- the labour market and
working environment
- business, industry, energy and regional
policy
- Fisheries, agriculture, forestry and food
- cultural
co-operation
- gender equality
- legislation
- environmental
protection issues
- social and health affairs
- education,
training and research
- economic and fiscal policy.
A Council
of Ministers will cover each of these 10 sectors. The Ministers for
Nordic Co-operation will constitute the 11th Council of Ministers, a
substantial reduction from the current 18. The new structure is expected
to take effect from 1 January 2006.
The Nordic Ministers of Culture agreed to change
the structure of Nordic cultural co-operation at their meeting last
week. Some Nordic institutions and committees will be disbanded but the
changes will free up some DKK 50 million for other culture programmes.
The ministers stressed the importance of maintaining the total budget
level when the reforms are implemented in 2007. A working party set up
under the auspices of the Danish Presidency of the Nordic Council of
Ministers 2005 came up with the proposals. The Danish Minister of
Culture, Brian Mikkelsen, said the working party had done a great job
and his Nordic counterparts concurred. The Finnish Minister of Culture,
Tanja Karpela, and the Norwegian Minister of Culture, Valgerd Svarstad
Haugland, both stressed that the countries have a responsibility to
promote cultural activities in the autonomous territories of Greenland,
the Faroe Islands and Åland as well. Several art organisations have
reacted sceptically to the proposals put forward by the structural
reform group. The ministers also underlined the need for positive
dialogue with the institutions to be closed.
Contact: Head of
Department Rigmor Duun Grande, + 45 21 71 71 10, rdg@norden.org
The Nordic Music Committee (NOMUS), the Nordic
Institute for Contemporary Art (NIFCA), the Nordic Literature and
Library Committee (NORDBOK) and the Nordic Centre for the Performing
Arts (NordScen) will cease to operate as official Nordic institutions in
2007 as a result of the structural changes to cultural co-operation in
the Region agreed by the Ministers of Culture.
Institutions and
committees may be disbanded but Nordic cultural co-operation will
continue. Many of the current activities could be financed as part of
the planned new culture and mobility programmes using funds freed up by
the changes.
Four other bodies will also be closed down: the
Nordic Steering Committee for Children’s and Youth Culture (BUK), the
Nordic Steering Committee on Culture and Mass Media, Nordic Cultural
Projects Abroad and the Nordic Museum Committee.
Under the
proposals, Nordic cultural activities will be administered by a
programme secretariat which will allocate the money currently spent on
the institutions to new three-year cultural programmes and mobility
programmes for artists. Some of the institutions threatened with closure
have criticised the proposals – but the strongest reactions have come
from art organisations in the Nordic Region.
Instead of permanent
institutions, approval will have to be sought from temporary policy
groups and expert consultants will have to be brought in to assume
responsibility for the artistic and cultural content of future Nordic
cultural co-operation, they claim.
“The Nordic Journalist Centre
will be closed as an institution but the activities will continue at one
of the many schools of journalism in the Region – just not as a separate
unit,” the Danish Minister of Culture, Brian Mikkelsen, said last
week.
“Should we
not join forces with Norway and form an ’OPEC’ for fish?” Høgni Hoydal
from the Faroe Islands asked. “It would strengthen our negotiation
position vis-à-vis the EU,” he told the West Nordic Council Fisheries
Conference in Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands.
None of the West
Nordic countries are members of the EU at the moment. Nor do they have a
joint strategy in relation to the EU in the fisheries sector, despite
the fact that EU decisions have a major impact on the West Nordic
Region.
Asmund Kristoffersen, the chair of the Nordic Council
Environment and Natural Resources Committee, stressed the importance of
sustainable fishing, healthy products, a good image and an unpolluted
marine environment.
“The Nordic Region has to concentrate on quality
if we are to compete in the global market. We have to focus on what
consumers want from fish produce,” he said.
Kristoffersen also
put forward the Nordic Council as a good forum for dialogue about
natural resources - a political workshop where opinions are forged and
ideas born.
“We have to be able to address controversial issues -
even if we can’t agree about everything.”
He also supported a
proposal by Asmundur Gudjonsson, fisheries advisor to the Nordic Council
of Ministers, that the many marine and fishery-related organisations in
the North Atlantic should co-ordinate their activities better.
The Danish Minister of Transport and
Energy, Flemming Hansen, opened a Nordic conference on June 16 about the
potential of new technology to improve road safety.
“I am
convinced that new technology will improve road safety. I know it won’t
happen overnight but I think the right way to progress is to collate as
much information as possible about the various experiments conducted in
Denmark, the Nordic countries and the rest of the EU. Human behaviour is
still the main cause of traffic accidents. I consider the opportunities
provided by new technology as a way in which we can help promote more
appropriate and safer behaviour on the roads,” he said.
The Nordic countries are to study the
potential for producing a joint influenza vaccine. At the moment, there
is not enough vaccine available to cope with an outbreak of avian flu,
for example, and a study will look at how to improve stocks and report
back by November at the latest, it was decided at a meeting of the
Nordic Ministers of Social Affairs on the Faroe Islands last Tuesday
morning.
The ministers will also continue to promote a Nordic
alcohol policy in international forums. At a meeting in Copenhagen last
October, they agreed a platform designed to form the basis for a Nordic
alcohol policy within organisation such as the WHO and the
EU.
“If freedom of movement inside the EU is damaging to public
health, we must have the power at national level to prevent that
damage,” the Finnish Minister of Health and Social Services, Liisa
Hyssälä, said. She considers Nordic co-operation on the topic of great
importance. In Finland and most of the other countries in the Nordic
Region alcohol consumption and the resulting health problems are still
increasing.
The meeting also looked at quality assurance surveys
in Nordic health care. The Nordic Council of Ministers has set up a
working party to analyse comparisons between countries and hospitals,
compare quality and facilitate the free choice of hospitals over
borders.
Danes travelling to Bornholm via
Sweden will find it easier to take pets, medicine and hunting and
sporting weapons with them in future, it emerged from the meeting of
Ministers for Nordic Co-operation in Frederiksdal last Wednesday.
The Danish Minister for Nordic Co-operation, Connie Hedegaard,
announced the news at a joint press conference with her Swedish
counterpart, the Minister of Social Affairs, Berit Andnor. Hedegaard
expressed her pleasure at the outcome.
“I greatly appreciate the
responsiveness and flexibility of the Swedish government in this matter.
It really will make a difference to the many Danes who travel to
Bornholm via Sweden every day. It shows that Nordic co-operation does
produce tangible results,” she said.
From June 15, travellers
with pets will be able to take the bus or train. Danes who need to take
medicine with them on the journey will also find things easier. Sweden
has accepted a proposal to introduce joint Nordic rules, including a
so-called ‘pill passport”.
Representatives of the Nordic Council and the
Conference of Arctic Parliamentarians gathered in Saint Petersburg in
Russia last week to discuss the future of parliamentary co-operation in
the Arctic Region. Following up on the ACIA report about climate changes
was one of the many themes on the agenda.
The meeting coincided
with the annual St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the special themes of
which this year was the EU’s Northern Dimension and the Arctic. The
President of he Nordic Council, Rannveig Gudmundsdóttir, has previously
stressed the importance of Russian involvement in the Northern Dimension
and co-operation in the Barents and Arctic regions.
As the chair
of the Arctic Council, Russia is planning the international Polar Year
2007. Other topics on the agenda in Saint Petersburg included
sustainable development in the Arctic and the role of the universities.
The plans for Arctic parliamentary co-operation next year were
also discussed. Kiruna in Sweden has been suggested as a meeting place.
Climate research is one of the subjects studied at the Swedish Science
Institute facility near Kiruna in
Abisko.
Norden This Week is published by the
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18, D-1255 Copenhagen.
Editor: Magne Kveseth, mk@norden.org.
Tel: +45 33 96 02 00,
fax: +45 33 93 58 18.
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