West Nordic Council

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The West Nordic Council (Danish: Vestnordisk Råd, Faroese: Útnorðurráðið, Icelandic: Vestnorræna ráðið, Kalaallisut: Nunat Avannarliit Killiit Siunnersuisoqatigiiffiat) is a cooperation forum of the parliaments and governments of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland. It was initially founded in 1985 as the West Nordic Parliamentarian Council of Cooperation but the name was changed in 1997. The council comprises six MPs from each nation appointed by their respective parliaments. The annual general meeting of the council rotates between the members and is its highest authority. The work and activities of the Council are organized by a three-member presidium of which the president of the council is a member. The current (August 2008 to August 2009) president is Kári P. Højgaard.

The nations of the Council share a somewhat common recent history: the Faroes and Greenland are autonomous territories of Denmark and Iceland is a former Danish possession. They also share a similar economic base, all being dependent on fisheries. The Council's main objectives are:

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 governments' 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.^[1]

The West Nordic Council is separate from the Nordic Council, although all of the members of the West Nordic Council are also members of the Nordic Council and there is some cooperation between the two.