Finland to chair Nordic cooperation

Finland will assume the chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers on January 1, 2001. During the chairmanship Finland and the other Nordic countries will host some 80 meetings at ministerial and civil servant level. In addition, there will be a number of seminars, conferences and other events organised by various sectors of administration. The chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers precedes the chairmanship of the Nordic Council which Finland will assume in November 2001.

A seminar to be attended by the parliamentarians of the Nordic Council and all the Ministers of Nordic Cooperation will be held in Helsinki at the end of January. A meeting between the aforementioned ministers and EU ambassadors will be held in Brussels in March. The Nordic Council will organise a seminar on "A Strategy for a Sustainable North" in Oslo at the beginning of April and in June the Ministers of Nordic Cooperation will gather in Naantali, Finland. During the summer, Finland will host a meeting of the Nordic Prime Ministers which will focus on regional cooperation, topical Nordic issues and questions related to cooperation in the spheres of Europe, the EU and the EEA.

Finland presented its Programme for the Chairmanship at the plenary meeting of the Nordic Council in Reykjavik at the beginning of November. The Programme emphasises civic participation in Nordic cooperation. Consequently, the priorities of the Finnish chairmanship include research and education, improving the quality of and access to services provided by the information society, and the integration of sustainable development into the work of various sectors.

In order to make Nordic cooperation better known among the public, Finland opened the first Internet pages of the Chairmanship on December 18, 2000. The pages can be accessed at norden.finland.fi(Link to another website.).The Internet pages are aimed particularly at the young, the media and the embassies located in Helsinki. The pages offer information on the Finnish Programme for the Chairmanship as well as Nordic cooperation in various sectors of administration. The calendar of events, news and background material on the meetings is also available from the Internet pages.

Further information: Mr Ingmar Ström, Counsellor at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 (0)9 1341 5561 or +358 (0)40 511 8424, e-mail [email protected]