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On 28–31 October, the Nordic Council's 76th annual session was held in Reykjavik, Iceland. Peace and Security in the Arctic was the overall theme of the session. Invited guest speakers included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leader of the democratic movement in Belarus, Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Deputy Chair of the Swedish Delegation to the Nordic Council Maria Stockhaus (Moderate Party) and Chair of the Swedish Delegation to the Nordic Council Heléne Björklund (Social Democratic Party).
From the Riksdag, 20 members of the Swedish Delegation to the Nordic Council participated. In connection with the closing of the session, the Chair of the Swedish Delegation to the Nordic Council, Heléne Björklund (Social Democratic Party) was elected President of the Nordic Council for 2025, and Deputy Chair Maria Stockhaus (Moderate Party) was elected Vice-President. During the session, they presented the Programme for Sweden’s Presidency of the Nordic Council in 2025. The title of the programme is “The Nordics together – Nordic value and cohesion in troubled times”, and the main theme is that Nordic citizens should be able to notice the value of Nordic cooperation in their everyday lives, and feel a strong sense of Nordic cohesion.
The Swedish Presidency programme further notes that troubled times call for even greater cooperation and Nordic cohesion. In addition to a focus on security and cohesion, the Swedish Presidency will focus on what it calls Nordic value. This is about eliminating obstacles to cross-border mobility, investing in know-how and innovation and promoting an integrated Nordic labour market. The Presidency programme further states that Nordic issues are also domestic policy issues. It is important that the issues that are dealt with by the Nordic Council also gain support in the committees of the national parliaments.
The Nordic Council’s session is the largest Nordic political forum of the year, in which the Council’s 87 parliamentarians and Nordic prime ministers, foreign ministers, defence ministers and ministers for Nordic cooperation meet for debate and discussion. This year’s session took place at the Icelandic Parliament – the Althing – and in Reykjavik City Hall.
During the week, the main theme “Peace and Security in the Arctic” was debated. The theme was highlighted, for example, at the summit with the members of the Nordic Council and the Nordic Prime Ministers.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was invited as guest speaker and emphasised in his speech that it is time to strengthen cooperation even further between Ukraine and the Nordic countries, as well as the other countries in the West. He expressed his gratitude to the Nordic countries for their sustained support to Ukraine. A support that is among the strongest in the world. He said that he hopes that this support can continue, and that we can deepen our cooperation even further.
The leader of the democratic movement in Belarus, Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, was also invited as guest speaker, and she underlined that the support of the Nordic countries is vital for Belarus. The message from Tsikhanouskaya was that Belarus is part of the European family of nations, and that Belarus is at the same time an important part of Europe’s future security.
During the session, the Nordic ministers for cooperation, foreign ministers and defence ministers also presented their reports, and a question time was held with the ministers for cooperation.
At the session, the members of the Nordic Council called on the governments in the Nordic region to update the Helsinki Treaty. This is considered necessary to ensure that Nordic cooperation can develop along with the times and reflect ongoing developments in the Nordics. As a result, the Nordic Council will recommend that the five Nordic countries which are parties to the Treaty appoint a working group which will decide whether, and if so in what way, the Treaty shall be updated.
Also during the session, the Nordic Council of Ministers’ cooperation programmes were launched – 14 new sectoral cooperation programmes that will guide the Nordic Council of Ministers’ intergovernmental work up to 2030. These were launched at the session by Swedish Minister with responsibility for Nordic Cooperation, Jessica Rosencrantz.
In addition to plenary debates, the Presidium of the Nordic Council and four committees held meetings and the committee matters were then dealt with in plenary – the Committee for Growth and Development in the Nordic Region, the Committee for a Sustainable Nordic Region, the Committee for Knowledge and Culture in the Nordic Region and the Committee for Welfare in the Nordic Region.
Every year in conjunction with the session, the Nordic Council presents prizes for children’s and young people’s literature, adult literature, music, film and the environment. 40 works, initiatives and artists from all of the Nordic countries had been nominated. In connection with the Nordic Council session in Reykjavik, the winners each received a “Nordlys” statuette at a special awards ceremony.
The Nordic Council is an organisation for cooperation among the parliaments and governments of the Nordic region. The Council works in the same way as a national parliament – but at the Nordic level. The role of the Nordic Council is to take the initiative where it identifies problems that can be solved at the Nordic level or where opportunities can arise through cooperation. Furthermore, the Nordic Council has an advisory function in matters concerning two or more Nordic countries.
The Nordic Council was established in 1952. It consists of 87 elected members from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland as well as the autonomous regions of the Faroe Islands, Åland and Greenland, and members from the countries’/regions’ governments.
Lena Eklöf, International Senior Adviser and Secretary to the Delegation, the International Department of the Riksdag, telephone: +46(0)70 993 47 82, email lena.eklof@riksdagen.se
