Sunday
7th Jun 2020
The European Commission's €1.85 trillion recovery plan from the coronavirus crisis did not convince environmental NGOs, such as Greenpeace, which believes that the proposal fails to offer a truly 'green recovery' and alternatives to the existing economic model.
The State of the Nordic Region report, published 4 February 2020, has revealed that birth rates in Finland, Norway, and Iceland are at record-low levels. Only in the Faroe Islands does the birth rate exceed the death rate.
Eager to engage with climate-engaged youth, eight Nordic prime ministers met with nine young political leaders in Stockholm for the first time this week. But did the youngsters take the bite?
The European Centre-Right LGBT+ Alliance demands Germany give up its resistance to the Anti-Discrimination Directive and suggest the commission and centre-right parties exert further pressure on Polish and Hungarian authorities to improve conditions for the LGBT+ community and people.
Danes still fear that EU proposals for a European minimum wage will harm their native systems of collective bargaining.
As president of one of the largest trade union confederations in the EU, I see the need for good working conditions and decent pay in all member states - but an EU-wide minimum wage could be used to lower wages.
It is too soon to deliver a verdict on the Swedish 'non-lockdown'. However, should Stockholm succeed in containing the virus without bringing its economy to a standstill, Sweden will enter the looming economic recession in a much better shape.
Denmark's response includes financial help to freelancers and students, compensation for fixed expenses such as rent and easier access to state-guaranteed loans. But some worry even with that, two-thirds of small businesses could collapse within 10 weeks.
State of emergency laws, some in breach of the constitution, were tabled in the Danish parliament in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.
The Nordic countries' success in promoting gender equality is a result of targeted government policies and strong civil societies. It has proven not only to be the right thing to do but also the smart thing to do.
No, ending anonymous shell companies does not threaten your privacy rights.
Young people in the Nordic countries are among the most privileged in the world - yet many of them feel miserable. The Nordic Council is concerned and aims to find out why.
A lone Polish NGO has objected to Denmark's permit for Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but neither that nor US mini-sanctions are likely to stop the juggernaut.
Iceland remains the most gender-equal country in the world, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden. But one Nordic country sticks out from its neighbours with few female lawmakers, senior officials and managers.
Donald Trump wanted to buy Greenland, while the Faroe Islands have come under pressure to ditch China's Huawei for its 5G network. Both incidents reflect growing geopolitical interest for the North Atlantic countries sharing foreign and security policy with Denmark.
Two Danish ministers - for environment, and for food and fisheries - call on the EU to reconsider the unintended consequences of zoning rules and income support in the Common Agricultural Policy.
The Arctic future conference kicked off with optimistic presentations by ministers and officials of the Russian government — but also a burst of scepticism from representatives of those actually living in Russia's Arctic and Far East regions.
Nordic cooperation will give young people a powerful platform on stages in Madrid and Stockholm during the UN Climate Conference COP25 next month.
Despite the neighbourhood's beautiful name, the reputation of Rosengård (Rose Garden) does not so much evoke images of roses as headlines of crime and social challenges. This area of Malmö has been struggling with its notorious, mythical, image for years.
"If evil is not defeated, it tends to expand", Natalia Magnitskaya, the widow of a Russian anti-corruption activist, has said, as EU diplomats discuss human rights sanctions 10 years after his death.
It will take hundreds, maybe thousands of years before the climate goes back to normal. Meanwhile we must work to stabilise it at the new level and adapt, Sweden's leading climate researcher says.
The Nordic Council's prestigious annual awards ceremony this year turned into a youth revolt, with climate activist Greta Thunberg declining the environment prize and another winner criticising the Danish prime minister for racism.
Despite Finland's EU presidency's repeated assurances it was in favour of promoting measures to end deforestation, the Finnish government has now announced that forestry policy should remain a national decision-making process.
Without much ado the Nordic Council cooperation has formed the backbone of politics in the entire region for more than 60 years. It meets in Stockholm this week, to discuss sustainable Arctic tourism, and ending summertime, among other topics.
Brussels will play host to more than 400 Nordic artists and creative practitioners this autumn, organised by one of Europe's most influential cultural institutions, BOZAR.
A controversial counterterrorism bill could end up criminalising aid workers in the Netherlands if they enter conflict hotspots when assisting the world's most vulnerable people.
An inaugural EU-Arctic forum is heralding a new impetus in EU efforts in the Arctic. This coincides with increased focus on the Arctic from China, Russia and the US.
The EU ought to consider banning Brazilian beef unless it takes action on forest fires, the Finnish EU presidency has said. A wider free trade deal is also at risk.
Donald Trump is to meet Greenland leader Kim Kielsen while in Denmark next month, amid global attention prompted by Trump's offer to buy the vast island.
Denmark is preparing an urgent national ban on food treated with the pesticide chlorpyrifos after an EU health warning, but European law could block the initiative.
Parliamentary arithmetic at Westminster, and societal pressures from the likes of Welsh sheep-farmers, Northern Irish cattle breeders, London business groups and Scottish Conservatives combine to push a motion of no-confidence in the prime minister by mid-October at the very latest.
Appalled over Coca-Cola sponsoring the recent Romanian EU presidency, MEPs have asked Finland, the new holders of the rotating post, to put an end to such practices. But Helsinki, whose presidency is sponsored by BMW, has no such plan.
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has delivered a blow to Denmark's strict family-reunification laws. The ruling will likely cause headaches for its new left-leaning government given its stance on immigration, and opens up 8,000 pending cases.
