Regions — Nordic Labour Journal

Estonia and the Nordics – from aid to equal cooperation

(May 30, 2023) At the Nordic Council of Ministers’ office in Tallinn, they will happily tell the story of how the Estonian President Lennart Meri regularly used to visit the information office in 1991.

Ukrainian women in Lithuania: We want to work for our country

(May 30, 2023) Many well-educated Ukrainian women who have fled with their children to Lithuania struggle to find skilled work. Now, with the support from the Nordic Council of Ministers and others, women are getting the knowledge and tools they need to rebuild their country once the war ends.

New energy in cooperation between the Baltic Sea countries

(May 30, 2023) A new wind is blowing for the cooperation on greener energy and security in the Baltic Sea region, believes Denmark’s ambassador to Lithuania.

When do we get a Council of Ministers for Transport?

(Apr 27, 2023) If the prime ministers really want the Nordics to become the world’s most integrated region, there should be a designated Nordic Council of Ministers for transport and infrastructure.

A metro from Malmö to Copenhagen

(Apr 27, 2023) The majority of Copenhagen’s political parties recently agreed to assess how a new line on the city’s metro system could be run to Malmö in Sweden. A decision is yet to be taken on another permanent link between the two countries – there are several alternatives.

Which is the best alternative?

(Apr 27, 2023) The Nordic Labour Journal put the same question to the project leaders for the three proposed new links between Sweden and Denmark. This is how they argue for their alternatives.

Working on the Baltic Sea – long shifts and a close community

(Apr 27, 2023) The ferries between the Nordics and the Baltics are important transport corridors and keep a lot of people in employment. One of the boats doing the crossing is Aura Seaways, where 52 crew live and work for four weeks at a time.

Electric planes herald new traffic patterns in the Nordics

(Apr 27, 2023) Electric planes might do more than reduce CO2 emissions. They could also open up a new category of commuting with new, shorter routes. Electric planes would also bring new jobs to manufacturing and at smaller airfields.

Creating synergies for life science cooperation in the Öresund Region

(Feb 27, 2023) Is a bridge enough to expand the common labour market in the Öresund region, or is more needed? The answer from Medicon Valley Alliances’ CEO is: We must also become better at identifying and using the factors that benefit both Denmark and Sweden and explore the potential of this.

How unique is the Nordic Council?

(Nov 29, 2022) How unique is the Nordic cooperation, with its Nordic Council and Nordic Council of Ministers? The nearest European parallels are the Benelux Union and the Benelux Parliament. At least in one area they have taken cooperation even further. But while people in the Nordics call themselves nordbor, no one calls themselves Beneluxianian.

Green aims in uncertain times

(May 26, 2022) One of the most important goals for the Nordic labour market cooperation is to make sure the right knowledge and skills are available to meet the demands of the green transition. But new and surprising challenges must also be dealt with.

Green industry makes Swedish Luleå try to grow three times faster

(May 26, 2022) There is a race on in Northern Sweden. Enormous investments in new technology give the largest of the Nordic countries the chance to compete with others to be the first to kickstart the green transition. It is a challenge for businesses and for civil society.

Trailblazing development of green steel in Swedish Boden

(May 26, 2022) Mass production of fossil-free steel is to be the arrowhead of the green transition in Northern Sweden. The initiative aims to mitigate climate change and meet the world’s needs for sustainability. With it come many new jobs and a need for new housing.

Image of macho Northern Swedish man must go to secure recruitment

(May 26, 2022) A gun on his back, snus tobacco under his lip and a misogynistic worldview, he drives around on his scooter. This image of the primitive Norrlänning – a person from Sweden’s northernmost county – became ingrained with the 1996 movie The Hunters. Now Northern Sweden is hunting for people to carry out the so-called green revolution, and that image has to go.

Hopes dashed on the Finnish-Russian border

(May 26, 2022) “Parikkala is a municipality people usually drive right past,” says Mayor Vesa Huuskonen, with only a hint of humour. Parikkala is an agricultural municipality with an ageing population in South-Western Finland, right on the border with Russia. Plans for an international border crossing have been scrapped because of the changed international situation.

Parikkala goes for maids, whitefish and an unusual sculpture park

(May 26, 2022) There is an old saying that "the maids from Parikkala and the whitefish from Simpeljärvi are better than anywhere else". The maid is now a sculpture in the city centre while the whitefish is swimming in the lake. But a sculpture park with 255 concrete statues doing yoga is by far the biggest draw.

The train to Russia stopped running. Lappeenranta limps on.

(Apr 25, 2022) The borderless Nordic region turned out to be an illusion during the pandemic. It hit the Øresund region, border trade between Sweden and Norway and the citizens of Haparanda and Tornio. But Finland has an eastern border where traffic has ceased because of the pandemic. Today the war in Ukraine has made the situation even worse for Lappeenranta – the city with the closest links with Russia.

The Faroe Islands: A country without prisons

(Jan 28, 2022) If you are sentenced to more than 18 months in prison in the Faroe Islands, you will suffer the additional penalty of being sent to Denmark to serve your sentence. Because there are no prisons in the Faroe Islands.

Islands with their own point of view

(Dec 10, 2021) The Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland see the Nordic cooperation as a stepping stone to the outside world. But they also bring plurality to the Nordic table by enhancing awareness of different governance arrangements, peoples and their rights.

Fredrik Karlström works hard to make Åland more diversified

(Dec 10, 2021) Fredrik Karlström has become a veteran of Nordic labour market cooperation. The Minister for Industry and Trade in Åland’s government pops up in pictures everywhere in the Nordic Labour Journal archives. The first was taken in 2012, where he poses with Nordic colleagues on the quayside in Longyearbyen in Svalbard.