Politicians from the Nordic and Baltic region as well as the Arctic and Barents area meet with representatives from the Russian Duma and the European Parliament for the second Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum on February 22-23.

The Forum will take place in Tromsø, Norway and is hosted by the Norwegian Parliament.

The Forum will include members from the European Parliament, the national parliaments of Russia, Iceland and Norway, representatives for indigenous peoples as well as representatives of regional parliamentary bodies representing all national parliaments in the Northern Dimension region, including Canada and the United States of America.

The first Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum was organized by the European Parliament in February 2009. The Forum determined that the next forum would be held in Norway in 2011. It was emphasized that the Forum shall not take the shape of a new institution, but rather be a recurrent gathering of representatives of the different parliamentary bodies in the North. The Forum has been instituted to improve cooperation and development in Northern Europe and the Arctic.

The primary focus of the Forum should be reports on the implementation of the partnerships within the Northern Dimension (the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership, Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture, the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being, Northern Dimension Partnership on Transport and Logistics). The Forum aims at coordinating the policies of the parliamentary bodies within the Northern Dimension region.

Source: Norden