Values and growth
Denmark set three keywords for its year of presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers: values, growth and welfare. Peter Christensen, Danish minister for Nordic cooperation says that shared values are the cornerstone of the Nordic countries and have aroused great interest across the world. Thus, in 2015, more attention than ever was paid to the introduction of the values shared by the Nordic countries outside of the region. For instance, the Nordic joint environmental policy and New Nordic Climate Solutions received international acclaim at the recent COP21 climate conference in Paris.
In order to trigger growth in the Nordic countries, Denmark set the task to more actively address the removal of barriers on the joint labour market. Denmark believes that the growth potential of the Nordic countries has been hindered by bureaucracy.
Baton passed over to Finland
In 2016, Finland will assume the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The keywords that Estonia’s neighbours in the north have selected for 2016 are water, people and nature.
Finland’s presidency in 2016 coincides with the marking of the 25th anniversary of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia. In addition, Estonia has declared 2016 as the Year of Maritime Culture, which combines very well with the water theme selected by Finland.