- We need to define what NORA is, says Birgir Kruse in the report from the Nora Region Conference 2011, published today (Photo: Par á Hædd)
Excerpts from: NORA REGION CONFERENCE 2011:
A view from the Faroe Islands:
"We need to define what NORA is”
Birgir Kruse, from the Faroe Islands, emphasized what Lars Thostrup had said in his introduction earlier in the day, that the sea is not only a barrier to cooperation in the NORA region, it is also the element that binds us together. He continued to quote Keith Storey, saying that “dependency on resources is a dangerous thing.”
With this as a starting point, Kruse made it clear that there is a need for a more concrete NORA mandate, in order to define what NORA is and what NORA wants. Therefore, he welcomed that for the first time in history there now exist a report that could be used as common platform to develop cooperation in the North Atlantic.
He then continued by comparing NORA with the Baltic Sea Region. In the Baltic Sea Strategy the countries are participating as EU-members on an equal basis. The same kind of organising principles do not exist in the West Nordic area: There is no EU, and the countries do not have an equal basis for working together.
Kruse also argued that there is a need to put cultural elements into the North Atlantic cooperation, because what the NORA region is lacking is the perception of a common identity. However, he underlined that we have a lot of things in common, and he therefore suggested that it would be a good idea to create a North Atlantic news agency, in order to increase the sense of a North Atlantic community throughout the NORA region.
Report c
The report can be read in full here: http://ipaper.ipapercms.dk/Nora/NORAREGIONCONFERENCEReport/