Nordic Council of Ministers

Last updated: 06.05.2013

The Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) was created in 1971 to intensify co-operation among the governments of the five Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland). The secretariat of the NCM is located in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Since March 2013 the secretary general of the NCM has been Dagfinn Høybråten.

Co-operation between the Nordic Council of Ministers and Estonia was established in 1991, when the NCM opened representation offices in the capitals of the once again independent Baltic states. That started a close partnership between Estonia and the NCM, which takes the form of numerous co-operation projects in many different sectors. The representation of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Tallinn has been led by Berth Sundström since January 2011. The representation office’s task is to widely introduce Nordic co-operation and manage all of the co-operation projects and programmes. Both public and private sector organisations as well as NPOs can apply for NCM projects. In order to ensure effective co-operation throughout the country there is also a representation of the NCM in Tartu, which is led by Madis Kanarbik. The NCM also has three information stations in Estonia, in Pärnu, Narva and Valga.

In order to map out the co-operation between the NCM and the Baltic countries, new guidelines are written every five years. Currently the co-operation priorities for 2014-2018 are being laid out; the Nordic and Baltic states both participate in the process. Estonia has set a clear goal to gradually increase co-financing of joint projects as well as participation in their planning. In other words, assistance programmes have become co-operation programmes. The first equally implemented Nordic scholarship programme was NORDPLUS 2008-2011, which the three Baltic states joined on equal ground with the Nordic countries in 2008. In 2009 three new joint Nordic-Baltic programmes were opened: a cultural mobility programme; a public administration mobility programme; and a business and industry mobility programme.

In 2013 the co-ordinator of the NCM is Sweden, which will focus on the Nordic social model and its challenges – among other thing, employment for young people and lifelong learning will be addressed. In 2012 Norway was the NCM co-ordinator, and the keywords of its chairmanship were “Nordic welfare state”.

More information:

Representation of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Estonia