The relationship of the Nordic council towards the states of the Western Balkans with a special reference to Greenland

Nešković Slobodan (Univerzitet Privredna akademija u Novom Sadu, Fakultet za evropske pravno-poslovne studije, Beograd, Međunarodna akademija umetnosti i bezbednosti - MANUB, Ukrajinska tehnološka akademija u Kijevu, Ukrajina), slobneskovic@gmail.com

The Nordic Council is an organisational forum of the Scandinavian states and their autonomous regions. It is the oldest regional partnership in Europe with the role of interparliamentary cooperation. The substantive institutional activities include economy, ecology, culture, sustainable development, and climate change. The Nordic Council of Ministers was established in the context of interstate cooperation and was conceived as a complement to the engagement of the Nordic Council. The member states of the observed collectivity combine similar historical foundations, social realities, and development orientations. The indigenous paradigm of the institution’s functioning can represent a model applicable to other territorial groupings in the world. The paper specifically examines the relations of the countries of the given group, members of the European Union (EU), towards the countries of the Western Balkans subregion. In the previous period, the position of the Autonomous Region of Greenland, as part of sovereign Denmark, has been of essential international importance due to the claims of the United States of America (US) administration to take over that territory. We note that the aforementioned councils have not yet explicitly stated their position on the current issue.

Keywords: Nordic Council, Council of Ministers, multilateral cooperation, Western Balkans, USA, Denmark, Autonomous Region of Greenland