Nordic Youth Council awarded DKK 455,000 for Interpretation and Translation costs
The Nordic countries have always operated in a very close spirit of co-operation and mutual assistance and the modern day manifestation of this is the Nordic Council. The Nordic Council is a forum for cross-Nordic co-operation encompassing almost every sphere of socio-economic overlap between member countries and is made up of representatives from member Parliaments; in fact it operates in a somewhat similar way to the EU (except that it doesn’t meddle, seek dictatorial powers over member States and genuinely has the interests of members at heart).
The Council is overlooked by a Presidium and the Presidium has recently decided to allocate some DKK 455,000 its youth organisation, the Nordic Youth Council, to cover future interpretation and translation costs. Interestingly, the Nordic Youth Council decided in their annual meeting this April, that in circumstances where it was not possible for delegates to understand each other in Nordic languages, then English would be used as the common medium of communication. This aside though, the Council’s aim is to promote the widespread understanding of Nordic languages as a way of promoting inter Nordic co-operation; hence the large monetary award.
For those who are unsure as to which States form the Nordic region, it is comprised of; Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland; also included are the Danish territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland as well as the Finnish territories of Åland.
Personally I’d happily learn Danish, Norwegian, Swedish…and yes, even Finnish, if we could dump the EU and join the Nordic Council.