Nordic Day celebrated at the Riksdag

The Speaker Andreas Norlén and the Swedish Delegation to the Nordic Council invited the members and officials of the Riksdag to the celebration of Nordic Day on 23 March.

The Speaker Andreas Norlén and the Chair of the Swedish delegation to the Nordic Council Heléne Bjelklund (Social Democratic Party) held speeches in the Bank Hall, where all visitors were also invited to sample Nordic pastries.

The Speaker also hosted a Nordic brunch with the Nordic ambassadors in Stockholm and members of the working committees of the Nordic Council. Items on the agenda included the new security policy situation and how it affects the Nordic countries and Nordic cooperation.

Nordic Day has been celebrated every year since the Helsinki Treaty was signed this day in 1962. The day is an opportunity to celebrate all the progress made by Nordic cooperation, particularly in the form of free movement, community and shared culture. But it is also a day to draw attention to common challenges and discuss how Nordic cooperation can be strengthened further. 

The Speaker’s speech

Check against delivery

Honourable Ambassadors,
Honourable members,
Nordic friends!

Welcome to the Bank Hall in the Swedish Parliament. Exactly one year ago, we celebrated Nordic Day, the 70th anniversary of the Nordic Council and the 60th anniversary of the Helsinki Treaty with pomp and circumstance. I hope that the fact that we are meeting once again on 23 March this year means that a new tradition has been established.

When we met last year, we had just started to meet again physically after the pandemic. It presented a severe strain for us all, but I believe that it was particularly difficult for Nordic cooperation.

Those of us who for a very long had been accustomed to meeting without any obstacles, be it in the form of passport requirements or physical barriers, suddenly found that we were prevented from visiting each other. At a stroke, one of the world's most well-functioning, prosperous and integrated regions closed its borders and people’s freedom of movement was physically prevented. This was against the DNA of every true Nordist. Now that we have hopefully put this behind us, we have experienced something of a fresh start to Nordic cooperation, based on lessons from what has been but above all with a strong drive forward.

The Norwegian Presidency, whose priorities include green transition – an area for which we in the Nordic countries are well-known and have much to pass on to the rest of the world – seems to me to show that Nordic cooperation is now taking a further step forward.

And it is not only in the environmental field that new steps are being taken. One year ago, two of the member countries of the Nordic Council were outside the NATO defence alliance. We all know what happened next. Now, both Sweden and Finland are on the way to becoming full members. We are therefore coming closer together at the security-policy level too.
And security policy shouldn’t just be taken to mean military cooperation; civil total defence capabilities  –  such as helping each other in the event of natural disasters – will also become an aspect of Nordic cooperation in the future.

At the interparliamentary level, I have long been an advocate of more in-depth exchange of experience between the committees in our national parliaments. It is not just the members of the delegations to the Nordic Council that have a lot to learn from each other. Such exchange at committee level already exists, but I am convinced that it can be further intensified.

A precondition if we are to learn from each other is naturally also that we understand each other linguistically. Our Nordic community is of course based on more than just language, we also have many common points of contact, culturally and politically. But language is important, and understanding of other Nordic languages is, in general, declining. I therefore welcome the various initiatives that the Nordic Council has taken to date to reverse this trend. These include, for example, encouraging and facilitating studies within the Nordic region.

The Helsinki Treaty, which was signed 61 years ago to the day, sets out that “educational provision in the schools of each of the Nordic countries shall include an appropriate measure of instruction in the languages, cultures and general social conditions of the other Nordic countries.” Basic knowledge of each other’s literature and language brings us closer together and I believe the whole Nordic region benefits from this.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have the pandemic behind us and membership of NATO ahead of us. The conditions for closer and resumed Nordic cooperation are better than they have been in a long time. At the same time, we should naturally not underestimate the problems and challenges that we face. Russia’s full-scale attack against Ukraine is without a doubt the biggest issue we will have to deal with.

And at the same time as we have an unjust war raging in our neighbourhood, large parts of the rest of the world are also moving in the wrong direction. According to the Global Peace Index, the world is currently experiencing its highest level of conflict in 15 years. In global terms, peaceful coexistence and tolerance are decreasing, while polarisation, intolerance and discrimination are increasing. At the same time, we see a downward trend when it comes to trust in governments and the media.

Against this bleak background, the Nordic region represents a guarantee for stability and a democratic ideal. Together, our five countries and three autonomous regions represent a unique and positive force in a world that is not always constituted in the way we would wish. In practice, we show that cooperation is something everyone can gain from.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Nordic cooperation in all its forms is absolutely worth celebrating. Let us congratulate the Nordic Council, which just turned 71 and the Helsinki Treaty – the legal framework for our Nordic cooperation – which turns 61 on this very day!

Thank you.