About the Nordic Council

The Nordic Council was formed in 1952 and is the forum for Nordic parliamentary co-operation. The Council has 87 elected members, representing the five countries and three autonomous territories.

The members of the Council are members of the national parliaments, who are nominated by their respective political party. There is thus no procedure for direct election to the Nordic Council.

The Council is unique in that parliamentarians and members of the governments meet for political discussions at the annual Sessions.

The Nordic Council, which is led by a Presidium, has held an ordinary Session every autumn since 1996. Special sessions on specific themes are organized in between.

On-going political work in the Nordic Council is conducted through committees and party groups.

The Nordic Council is managed by a Secretariat which shares its premises with Secretariat of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Copenhagen. Moreover, the Nordic Council has national secretariats in the Nordic parliaments, attached to the delegations of the respective countries.

The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers share personnel, finance and service departments. Information activities are managed by a joint information department.

Edited September, 2009

News

14/05/2010

Nordic interest in Russia

15 MPs from the Nordic Council are heading for the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions of Russia on 16 May. The politicians will meet their Russian colleagues and learn more about the challenges facing the two Russian regions.

Sinikka Bohlin,
photo - Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org
details

16/04/2010

Study visit to Denmark

A group of specialists from 9 municipalities of the Kaliningrad region is leaving for Denmark on 17 April 2010 to visit 6 Danish municipalities and to study experiences of Nordic countries on business development issues, municipal support of entrepreneurs, public-private partnership and companies’ staff upgrading.

photo - Nikolaj Bock, www.norden.org
details

26/03/2010

Attitudes are what have to change in order for accessibility to be achieved

There is a great deal of interest among the Russian and Baltic participants on the course in Universal Design that begun on Monday at the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV). The discussions during lectures are lively and questions posed many from participants representing various sectors and agencies.
– The problem is to change attitudes so that those working for public institutions accept that these should be accessible for all, rather than it being an issue of lack of funding, says Andrey Zonin, Director for the Institute for Cultural Programs in St. Petersburg.
details