Speech S:t Petersburg 28 October 2008
Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs

Speech on behalf of the Swedish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers at the Northern Dimension Meeting

As prepared for delivery

Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since Sweden, nearly a year ago, succeeded Finland as President of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the prerequisites for regional as well as worldwide cooperation have changed dramatically.

The financial crisis has no doubt also deeply affected the Nordic countries, in particular Iceland. Regional conflicts not far from our neighbourhood have also been of common concern to us.

In an evolving world, the Nordic Council of Ministers' experience and expertise of more than 15 years in the Baltic Sea region is a valuable asset. Its five offices in the region (Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad) are important actors in this respect.

The Nordic Council of Ministers, or the NCM, is proactive in many fields of importance to the Northern Dimension area. The Council is, for example, engaged in actions focusing on the Arctic region. The NCM has recently adopted a cooperation programme concentrating on the Arctic for the period 2009-2011. The programme will focus on the livelihood of the Arctic people, address environmental and climate issues and ensure the legacy of the International Polar Year, which is coming to an end next year.

In early September, the NCM, together with the EU, arranged a conference on Greenland to highlight the importance of the Arctic region.

Cooperation with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and with North West Russia is another cornerstone of the NCM cooperation in the Baltic Sea region. New guidelines for cooperation during 2009-2013 have recently been adopted. The guidelines regarding the three Baltic countries have been endorsed by the Nordic-Baltic foreign ministers.

The objective of the guidelines is to contribute to a strengthened Baltic Sea region and to enhanced possibilities for sustainable growth, well-being and competitiveness. This is in order to meet the challenges and possibilities of globalisation, and also to support the upcoming EU Baltic Sea strategy, a top priority of the upcoming Swedish EU Presidency in 2009. Furthermore, it is to contribute to the establishment of links of cooperation between the strategy and the renewed Northern Dimension.

The NCM is supporting the European Humanities University in exile, in Vilnius. A trust fund has recently been established to safeguard the possibilities for continued education of Belarusian students. At the moment about 2500 students are studying at the university.

Activities to strengthen the fight against trafficking in human beings are yet another area of ongoing interest to the NCM. The Council is, for example, supporting concrete activities conducted by the Task Force against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk, under the auspices of the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The activities of the former Nordic-Baltic Task Force are being further developed within this CBSS framework.

Within the Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being, the Nordic Council of Ministers has been particularly active in the fields of socially disadvantaged children and young people, health, prevention of HIV/AIDS, anti-alcohol and drug abuse measures.

In the environmental field, the Nordic institution NEFCO is supporting some 300 small and medium-sized projects, focusing on water treatment, municipal services, power utilities, waste management, chemicals, agriculture and environmental management.

The Nordic Ministers for Culture have initiated an analysis of the potential and desirability to establish a Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture.

Through the programme Knowledge Building and Network, the NCM supports the exchange of about 500 researchers, civil servants and others from universities, public administration, institutions, and NGOs in Northwest Russia and in the Nordic countries.

Through the NGO programme for the Baltic Sea region, the NCM supports capacity building of NGOs in Northwest Russia and Belarus through tri-partite cooperation between NGOs in the Nordic countries, in the three Baltic countries and Poland, and in Russia and Belarus.

Although the NCM is already engaged in many fields of cooperation within the four Common Spaces, we are open to and interested in looking into further possibilities of engagement within the framework of the Northern Dimension, not least in areas for strengthening our region in light of the challenges and opportunities of globalisation.

Thank you for your kind attention.