United Nordic region would require NATO, EU and Eurozone membership

"For the Nordic countries to move towards a federation, all five of them would need to be members of NATO, the European Union and the Eurozone," said Halldór Asgrímsson, the secretary-general of the Nordic Council of Ministers, in response to Swedish social science specialist Gunnar Wettenberg – whose proposal that the Nordic region should consider forming one federal state was met with a wave of opinions from the five countries involved.

At the same time, representatives and ministers from the group of five – Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland – already work very closely together, as part of the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers respectively. The majority of ministers from the region meet around four times a year. The prime ministers of those countries which are Member States of the European Union also meet unofficially prior to EU summits and keep non-members Norway and Iceland up to speed on developments. Ahead of summits the prime ministers furthermore discuss key issues with their colleagues from the Baltic States.