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Arctic Yearbook 2013
The West Nordic Council and Its Arctic Engagement
search and rescue, resources and transportation, cultural and environmental affairs, as well as foreign
affairs – with Arctic issues at the forefront (Althingi, 2013b; West Nordic Council, 2012). The main
objectives of the West Nordic Council are defined on the council‘s website (West Nordic Council,
n.d.):
To promote west Nordic (north Atlantic) interests.
To be guardians of north Atlantic resources and north Atlantic culture and to help promoting West Nordic
interests through the West Nordic governments – not least with regards to the serious issues of resource
management, pollution etc.
To follow up on the government‘s west Nordic cooperation.
To work with the Nordic Council and to be the west Nordic link in Nordic cooperation.
To act as the parliamentary link for inter-west Nordic organisations, including Arctic parliamentary
cooperation.
A Surge in West Nordic Cooperation
In the past few years there has been a surge in bilateral cooperation between the three West Nordic
countries, especially cooperation between Iceland and the two autonomous countries within the
Commonwealth of the Realm of Denmark. This includes, (1) a comprehensive bilateral free-trade
agreement between Iceland and Faroe Islands (the Hoyvik Agreement, ratified in 2006)
2
, which
―applies to trade in goods and services, movement of persons and right of residence, movement of
capital and investment, competition, state aid and public procurement‖ (Althingi, 2011: 8). There
have also been on-going discussions about Greenland joining the agreement (thus creating a West
Nordic free-trade zone)
3
; (2) the establishment of a Greenland-Iceland Chamber of Commerce in
2012 (GLIS, n.d.)
4
; and (3) in September 2013 Iceland became the first country to set up a consulate
in Greenland
5, 6
(Icelandic Prime Minister‘s Office, 2013).
The West Nordic Council and its External Affairs
The West Nordic Council offers the three small countries in question an interesting platform to,
amongst other things, increase their economic cooperation and conduct foreign affairs, not the least
concerning Arctic affairs. For Greenland (and to some extent Faroe Islands) it is one of few venues
where it conducts international cooperation without Denmark‘s supervision, with the only other
notable exception for such cooperation forums being NAMMCO (North Atlantic Marine Mammal
Commission) (see Kingdom of Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2011: 53; Naalakkersuisut,
n.d.). The West Nordic Council has in recent years started to apply its goals in a broader range of
West Nordic, Nordic, European and Arctic cooperation than before, formalising such cooperation
with agreements signed: in 2002, on cooperation between the West Nordic Council and the
governments of the West Nordics; in 2006, providing the West Nordic Council more influence
within the Nordic Council through increased representation and recommendations, as well as with
consideration of West Nordic Council‘s resolutions; and again in 2008, when the West Nordic
Council made an agreement with the European Parliament on regular meetings for information and
cooperation (Althingi, 2013a).