Chapter 5: The late 1980s
Devvy
Donor
Chapter 5: The late 1980s.
The Nordic state flags at a 1980s Nordek meeting.
The early years of Nordek had seen it take a very similar growth to that in the European Community. Joint work on nuclear energy, a growing economic union, and a generally ingovernmental approach co-ordinated by a joint secretariat. The Nordics had, by 1985, enjoyed the success of a full customs union, and growing intra-Nordic trade both in goods, food, and free movement of people. Nordatom had delivered new nuclear power plants, enabling cleaner energy - reducing fossil fuel usage - and also energy security, reducing the volume of imports of such material. By the 1980s however, the European Community was now looking at reforms, and exactly the same began to happen in the Nordics, helped by an improving global situation as the flare up in tension in the early 1980s reduced - aided by a notable PR win for the Nordics in the Reykjavik Summit between the two superpowers.
The introduction of the "CE" marking and declaration of conformity with European laws was mirrored in the Nordics with the "NN" symbol (short for NordeN), showing conformity with one of the Nordic members regulatory and technical standards for health, safety and environmental protections, on the basis that all Nordic national standards met minimum thresholds and should be mutually recognised. The hope was that this would reduce the administrative burden on manufacturers for selling devices manufactured in one Nordic state, could now be sold in all other Nordic states without further certification. Further action in the late 1990s would see a European-Nordic agreement on the harmonisation between CE and NN conformity, allowing joint declarations by manufacturers of "CE/NN" conformity.
The parallels mostly stopped there however. The European Community was admitting new states for accession now (Greece had acceded to the European Community in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986), and the voting system had become rather complicated. In addition, many idealists sought to move the European Community on towards a closer federal union, and envisaged a new "European Union", with far greater centralisation at the "Union" level (or federal as some phrased it), and a reduction in member state influence. This proved to be highly controversial, and caused a great deal of debate in EC political circles, but the Maastricht Treaty ended up being signed and forming the new European Union (evolved from the European Community).
The Nordics took a separate move however. The Nordic mindset saw Nordek as a concept of co-operation between nation states, and a sense of scepticism towards supranational or federal integration. After all, three of it's members had only achieved true independence within the century - Norway in 1905, Finland in 1917 and Iceland in 1918 or 1944 depending on the person speaking (1918 saw independence in a personal union with Denmark, with the Danes handling foreign affairs and defence for the new state, whilst 1944 saw the establishment of the Icelandic Republic and the removal of all links to Denmark). All this meant there was little appetite for a full union above the Nordic member states, and to a Nordic mindset, the future was in further, deeper co-operation and "shared services", even if some political power would have to be centralised. Idealists and advocates for some counterpart "Nordic Union" also ran up against foreign policy issues too, with none able to square Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic membership of NATO with Finnish requirements for a high level relationship with the Soviet Union. Even from an economic viewpoint, Finland continued to do significant trade with the Soviet Union (and other Eastern Bloc countries) despite the Nordic customs union - the Soviet Union was treated equally to the European Community in the Nordics when it came to foreign trade in order to keep the great bear happy, and this had proven an advantageous relationship with a great deal of raw materials coming westwards.
In came Kalevi Sorsa to the Nordic Secretary-General seat in 1989, after a career in Finnish politics. The move was the culmination of Danish-Norwegian-Finnish attempts to ensure that Nordek did not become a sole vessel for Swedish economic dominance, and now each of the three had had a Secretary-General - presumably with a Swede next. Sorsa was a committed supporter of Nordek, seeing it as a vehicle for improving the Finnish economy and international relations - and also one day, potentially a vehicle for closer integration with the European economy as the Soviet Union stagnated. Sorsa had close links with his fraternal parties across the Nordics in SDP parties, whilst also high-level connections in Washington, and more importantly Moscow - adding a degree of credence to assertions he could gather acceptance for further Nordek integration with both the domestic Nordic governments and the Soviets next door.
The new Nordek Secretary-General.
Many other ideas were being discussed by 1990, with ideas ranging across the entire political mindset with a few still pressing for a full federal union. This was not to be, but gaping cracks in the Soviet Union were suddenly visible, and for a couple of years, everyone watched events unfold to the east. One major policy initiative in 1990, shortly before the Soviet implosion was a "Nordic Airspace Agreement", which introduced the Nordek single market to the aviation market within the Nordic area. Aviation was a critical part of Nordic transportation, given the long distances and often unfriendly terrain, and the agreement introduced the concept of a "Nordic" air carrier - any airline of a member state, majority owned by the Nordics and principally based in the Nordics. Any Nordic carrier, after a transition period where rules on prices were deregulated, would be able to fly between any Nordic airports, whilst also competition rules were laid out on facilities and supporting processes (ie. air control, landing slots, ground services) to ensure freedom of access for all. Whilst there were fears about the future of more rural subsidised routes (which were still permitted), the introduction of smaller and more nimble regional airlines would often end up enhancing rural air connectivity with better services and lower prices.
Road signage was also be harmonised under members state agreement; the International E-Road Network was fully integrated in to national signage, which had proved difficult when E-roads were renumbered, with the Nordics refusing to resign the roads due to the expense it would cause. This led to the "E4" and "E6" roads being retained as they were. Major trunk roads (often called "national roads") which were not E-Roads would be renumbered, with the process scheduled to take up to 12 years with a slow rate of sign replacement and updating, with longer-distance roads receiving an Nxxx number - although the meaning of the "N" was never conclusively stated, and rotates between "Nordic", "Norden" or "National" in popular culture. Roads in the N1xx group were cross-border main roads - primarily in Norway and Sweden and to a lesser extent Finland, with subsequent numbers groups assigned: N3xx (Denmark), N4xx (Norway), N5xx (Sweden), N6xx (Finland) and N7xx (the Atlantic Islands; Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes) - with those national authorities then subdividing the numbering scheme as appropriate for them. However, the Atlantic Islands all elected not to participate - they had no land borders to standardise numbers on and had little in the way of truly "major" roads by wider Nordic and global standards. In terms of marketing, Iceland had branded it's ring road as "Highway 1", and the was reluctant to lose the clear signage, whilst Greenland had no interconnecting roads between their settlements, and the Faroes had a similarly tiny number of roads.
The Nordic state flags at a 1980s Nordek meeting.
The early years of Nordek had seen it take a very similar growth to that in the European Community. Joint work on nuclear energy, a growing economic union, and a generally ingovernmental approach co-ordinated by a joint secretariat. The Nordics had, by 1985, enjoyed the success of a full customs union, and growing intra-Nordic trade both in goods, food, and free movement of people. Nordatom had delivered new nuclear power plants, enabling cleaner energy - reducing fossil fuel usage - and also energy security, reducing the volume of imports of such material. By the 1980s however, the European Community was now looking at reforms, and exactly the same began to happen in the Nordics, helped by an improving global situation as the flare up in tension in the early 1980s reduced - aided by a notable PR win for the Nordics in the Reykjavik Summit between the two superpowers.
The introduction of the "CE" marking and declaration of conformity with European laws was mirrored in the Nordics with the "NN" symbol (short for NordeN), showing conformity with one of the Nordic members regulatory and technical standards for health, safety and environmental protections, on the basis that all Nordic national standards met minimum thresholds and should be mutually recognised. The hope was that this would reduce the administrative burden on manufacturers for selling devices manufactured in one Nordic state, could now be sold in all other Nordic states without further certification. Further action in the late 1990s would see a European-Nordic agreement on the harmonisation between CE and NN conformity, allowing joint declarations by manufacturers of "CE/NN" conformity.
The parallels mostly stopped there however. The European Community was admitting new states for accession now (Greece had acceded to the European Community in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986), and the voting system had become rather complicated. In addition, many idealists sought to move the European Community on towards a closer federal union, and envisaged a new "European Union", with far greater centralisation at the "Union" level (or federal as some phrased it), and a reduction in member state influence. This proved to be highly controversial, and caused a great deal of debate in EC political circles, but the Maastricht Treaty ended up being signed and forming the new European Union (evolved from the European Community).
The Nordics took a separate move however. The Nordic mindset saw Nordek as a concept of co-operation between nation states, and a sense of scepticism towards supranational or federal integration. After all, three of it's members had only achieved true independence within the century - Norway in 1905, Finland in 1917 and Iceland in 1918 or 1944 depending on the person speaking (1918 saw independence in a personal union with Denmark, with the Danes handling foreign affairs and defence for the new state, whilst 1944 saw the establishment of the Icelandic Republic and the removal of all links to Denmark). All this meant there was little appetite for a full union above the Nordic member states, and to a Nordic mindset, the future was in further, deeper co-operation and "shared services", even if some political power would have to be centralised. Idealists and advocates for some counterpart "Nordic Union" also ran up against foreign policy issues too, with none able to square Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic membership of NATO with Finnish requirements for a high level relationship with the Soviet Union. Even from an economic viewpoint, Finland continued to do significant trade with the Soviet Union (and other Eastern Bloc countries) despite the Nordic customs union - the Soviet Union was treated equally to the European Community in the Nordics when it came to foreign trade in order to keep the great bear happy, and this had proven an advantageous relationship with a great deal of raw materials coming westwards.
In came Kalevi Sorsa to the Nordic Secretary-General seat in 1989, after a career in Finnish politics. The move was the culmination of Danish-Norwegian-Finnish attempts to ensure that Nordek did not become a sole vessel for Swedish economic dominance, and now each of the three had had a Secretary-General - presumably with a Swede next. Sorsa was a committed supporter of Nordek, seeing it as a vehicle for improving the Finnish economy and international relations - and also one day, potentially a vehicle for closer integration with the European economy as the Soviet Union stagnated. Sorsa had close links with his fraternal parties across the Nordics in SDP parties, whilst also high-level connections in Washington, and more importantly Moscow - adding a degree of credence to assertions he could gather acceptance for further Nordek integration with both the domestic Nordic governments and the Soviets next door.
The new Nordek Secretary-General.
Many other ideas were being discussed by 1990, with ideas ranging across the entire political mindset with a few still pressing for a full federal union. This was not to be, but gaping cracks in the Soviet Union were suddenly visible, and for a couple of years, everyone watched events unfold to the east. One major policy initiative in 1990, shortly before the Soviet implosion was a "Nordic Airspace Agreement", which introduced the Nordek single market to the aviation market within the Nordic area. Aviation was a critical part of Nordic transportation, given the long distances and often unfriendly terrain, and the agreement introduced the concept of a "Nordic" air carrier - any airline of a member state, majority owned by the Nordics and principally based in the Nordics. Any Nordic carrier, after a transition period where rules on prices were deregulated, would be able to fly between any Nordic airports, whilst also competition rules were laid out on facilities and supporting processes (ie. air control, landing slots, ground services) to ensure freedom of access for all. Whilst there were fears about the future of more rural subsidised routes (which were still permitted), the introduction of smaller and more nimble regional airlines would often end up enhancing rural air connectivity with better services and lower prices.
Road signage was also be harmonised under members state agreement; the International E-Road Network was fully integrated in to national signage, which had proved difficult when E-roads were renumbered, with the Nordics refusing to resign the roads due to the expense it would cause. This led to the "E4" and "E6" roads being retained as they were. Major trunk roads (often called "national roads") which were not E-Roads would be renumbered, with the process scheduled to take up to 12 years with a slow rate of sign replacement and updating, with longer-distance roads receiving an Nxxx number - although the meaning of the "N" was never conclusively stated, and rotates between "Nordic", "Norden" or "National" in popular culture. Roads in the N1xx group were cross-border main roads - primarily in Norway and Sweden and to a lesser extent Finland, with subsequent numbers groups assigned: N3xx (Denmark), N4xx (Norway), N5xx (Sweden), N6xx (Finland) and N7xx (the Atlantic Islands; Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes) - with those national authorities then subdividing the numbering scheme as appropriate for them. However, the Atlantic Islands all elected not to participate - they had no land borders to standardise numbers on and had little in the way of truly "major" roads by wider Nordic and global standards. In terms of marketing, Iceland had branded it's ring road as "Highway 1", and the was reluctant to lose the clear signage, whilst Greenland had no interconnecting roads between their settlements, and the Faroes had a similarly tiny number of roads.