Maritime safety is of key importance for the Baltic Sea region. Photo: norden.orgThe Nordic countries and the Baltic States together show the rest of Europe how successful regional cooperation can be in helping to emerge from the crisis, Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, said at the Baltic Sea States Summit held in Vilnius on 2 June.

"Maritime safety is of key importance for the entire Baltic Sea region, and we must engage in closer co-operation to ensure that safety," Matti Vanhanen, the Prime Minister of Finland, stressed. According to Vanhanen, the Baltic Sea countries lack the capacity to cope with disasters such as the one that currently plagues the Gulf of Mexico. "Most accidents happen due to human error," Vanhanen explained. "Thus, we need better control and information systems to map out exactly where ships are and where they are headed, just like we have at airports."

Danish national coat of arms made of ice and flag. Photo: Nikolaj Bock/norden.org"We have the courage to invest strategically and offensively so that Nordic co-operation continues to generate added value for our citizens and binds or nations even more closely together," emphasises Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the leader of the country that took over the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers from Iceland on 1 January.

Globalisation and the associated challenges and opportunities and creation of a sustainable and green Nordic region are the main key words during the presidency of Denmark. It means that Denmark will continue with the globalisation work, which was approved by the Nordic prime ministers in Punkaharju, Finland, in 2007.

The financial crisis, which also affected the Nordic countries, became a worrying factor of globalisation in the last year. Production decreased in the whole world and unemployment increased. The crisis is not likely to end this year and it will leave its mark on Denmark's presidency. However, Denmark as the presiding country of the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) in 2010 emphasises that economic and social development must in balance with environmental protection and the fight against climate change irrespective of the economic difficulties. All people must have good living conditions.

Arbeidsliv i Norden (Working Life in the Nordic Countries) is now published online instead of on paper.The Tolkise sawmill in Finland fell silent in December 2008 when operator Stora Enso reacted to the financial crisis and decided to suspend production for one year. 50 of the mill's 70 workers were laid off; four were retained to look after the machinery and buildings; and the remaining workers decided to retire.

Hopes that the sounds of sawing will fill Tolkise again within a few months are slim. "We'll see what spring brings," says Raimo Nenonen, who has worked at the mill since 1978, in an interview with the new online magazine Arbeidsliv i Norden (Working Life in the Nordic Countries). 59-year-old Nenonen spends most of his days at home with his cat Murre. The majority of the household income is now being earned by his partner; the timber worker himself receives unemployment benefits.

Fishing boatAs a result of the worst recession in global history, the Icelanders - the descendents of the proud Vikings - are looking to become the fourth Nordic nation to join the European Union (EU). But the country is not merely seeking support from the EU to overcome its difficulties - it is presenting the union with innovations it has a real need for, drawing on its experience as an island nation to impart its skills in maintaining fish stocks.

According to Icelandic Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson, there are only two regions in the world where cod stocks are increasing rather than decreasing - and the waters around Iceland are one of them.

The EU's current fishery policy designates that all of the waters within the union are for the joint use of member states and that fish can only be caught in accordance with pre-determined quotas. If one of these quotas is exceeded, the fish must be returned to the water. Environmental critics have labelled such activities damaging to nature. EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Joe Borg has conceded that there are shortcomings in the policy, which is planned to be reviewed by 2012.

"We are doing absolutely everything in our power to back up our Icelandic friends," the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told international journalists on Tuesday.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are offering Iceland support during its financial crisis. Back in May, they each entered into bilateral swap facility agreements with the Central Bank of Iceland giving it the right to acquire euro against Icelandic krona for up to an aggregate amount of €500 million.

Helsinki will be the political centre for the financial crisis in the nordic countries when the Nordic Council Session begins October 27th. The Icelandic Prime Minister, Geir Haarde, will hold his own press conference on Monday at 15.30 in the Government Banquet Hall.

Iceland received today a commitment of four billion euro (almost 30 billion crowns), to help the country avoid national bankruptcy, announced the Icelandic Prime Minister, Geir Haarde, according to Ritzau and Børsen Online.

The financial lifeline for Iceland comes partly from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which will back Iceland with 1.6 billion euros, and partly from ‘friendly' nations which will provide the remaining 2.4 billion euros.

"The Region should act as a test market for green transport and build the green Nordic brand in the global energy sector," the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told the Nordic Globalisation Forum in Iceland on its second and final day.

Rasmussen would like to see tangible projects emerge from the Forum right away and called on the ministers for Nordic co-operation to make a decision next week on the theme for future globalisation initiatives. He proposed, for example, that the Region should serve as a test market for climate-friendly solutions in the transport industry.

The Nordic countries and the Baltic States must work together to sharpen their competitive edge and contribute to innovation – only by doing so will the Baltic region emerge as a winner in a globalising world, write Nordic Council of Ministers Secretary-General Halldór Ásgrímsson and Baltic Development Forum Chairman Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in a joint article in the Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper. Stronger ties would also help to ease the consequences of the financial crisis.

Together, the Nordic countries and the Baltic States form the ninth biggest economic space in the world, Ásgrímsson and Ellemann-Jensen write. The history of this economic space has not been simple, but highly fragmented. And right now the nations in the region and their political leaders are faced with a choice: whether to strive for more effective cooperation or go it alone and fight their own corners. The Nordic countries are clearly in favour of working together, and this is the end everyone needs to work towards, the former ministers feel.