87 Nordic parliamentarians from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, the prime ministers, a range of other ministers and high-level politicians are to meet during the Session of the Nordic Council in Stockholm, 29–31 October. Top of the agenda is sustainability, climate change and security issues. The guest speaker will be Michael Tjernström, one of Sweden's most respected climate scientists and meteorologist will deliver a lecture to the Nordic Council, which will be followed by a debate.
“I would encourage the members of the Nordic Council to seize this opportunity and really challenge the prime ministers at the summit. Only once a year at the Session do the members of the Nordic Council get the chance to ask questions of any of the Nordic prime ministers they wish in an open debate,” says Hans Wallmark, President of the Nordic Council in 2019.
The troubling international situation will also make its mark on the Session, with security questions encroaching on several of the other debates. One item on the agenda is a discussion about an ambitious new strategy for societal security in the Nordic region. The strategy paper includes a range of proposals for how the Nordic countries could work more closely together on the issue. Several items on the agenda will cover refugees, migration and integration, including two proposals for Nordic co-operation to combat honour culture.
“Defence and security questions are becoming more and more important in Nordic co-operation, and rightly so. In the light of current events in the Middle East and instability in international politics, there are strong reasons why we in the Nordic Region should work even more closely together on security issues,” Hans Wallmark says.
On 29 October, the awards ceremony for the Nordic Council prizes will also be held in the Stockholm Concert Hall.
