Nordic Council

Nordic Council Nordisk Råd  (Danish) Pohjoismaiden neuvosto  (Finnish) Norðurlandaráð  (Icelandic) Nordisk råd  (Norwegian) Nordiska rådet  (Swedish)
Flag
Member states and regions of the Nordic Council (blue).
Headquarters	Copenhagen
Largest cities
Working languages	Danish Norwegian Swedish
Type	Intergovernmental organization
Membership	8 states & territories 5 states  Denmark  Finland  Iceland  Norway  Sweden 3 territories  Åland Islands  Faroe Islands  Greenland
Leaders
• Secretary-General	Britt Bohlin Olsson
• President	Höskuldur Þórhallsson
• Vice-President	Guðbjartur Hannesson
• Secretary General of the Council of Ministers	Dagfinn Høybråten
• Presidency of the Council of Ministers	Denmark
Establishment
• Nordic Council inaugurated	12 Feb 1953
• Treaty of Helsinki	1 Jul 1962
• Nordic Council of Ministers and Secretariat inaugurated	Jul 1971
Population
• 2012 estimate	25,880,000
Currency	5 currencies Krone Euro Króna Krone Krona
Website www.norden.org

The Nordic Council is a geo-political inter-parliamentary forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was formed after the Second World War in 1952 to promote co-operation between the five Nordic countries. Its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders without passports for the countries' citizens.

The Council consists of 87 representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the autonomous areas of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. The representatives are members of parliament in their respective country/area and are elected by those parliaments. The Council holds ordinary sessions each year in October/November and usually one extra session per year with a specific theme. Since 1991 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania participate with observer status, as well as the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 2016.

In 1971, the Nordic Council of Ministers, an intergovernmental forum, was established to complement the Council.

During World War II, Denmark and Norway were occupied by Germany; Finland fought a costly war with the Soviet Union; while Sweden, though neutral, still felt the war's effects. Following the war, the Nordic countries pursued the idea of a Scandinavian defence union to ensure their mutual defence. However, Finland, due to its Paasikivi-Kekkonen policy of neutrality and FCMA treaty with the USSR, could not participate.