3. Priorities

The co-operation on justice affairs focuses on the three strategic priorities: “Guaranteeing the rule of law”, “Unified Nordic legislation and Nordic benefit” and “Crime prevention”. Within the framework of these priorities, the justice sector seeks to achieve the strategic priorities of a “Competitive Nordic Region” and a “Socially sustainable Nordic Region” that form part of Our Vision 2030.

The work in the justice sector to promote unified legislation and Nordic benefit seeks to maintain freedom of movement and counteract and avoid barriers  as a result of differences in national legislation. This work falls under objective 7 in the action plan for Our Vision 2030.

The Helsinki Treaty strives for the mutual co-ordination of justice affairs. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Nordic countries must have identical legislation. The unified Nordic legislation also involves working toward a joint legal structure and joint principles for legislation. The need for, scope and nature of co-operation on justice affairs varies in different areas of the law.

Regarding legal co-operation, the Helsinki Treaty contains the following articles:

With regard to criminal offences committed in one of the Nordic countries, it shall, as far as circumstances allow, be possible to investigate and prosecute the offence in another Nordic country.        

It is a key objective of the co-operation on legislative affairs that the content and structure of legislation and other regulations are accessible to people and that people and companies enjoy freedom of movement throughout the Nordic Region without unnecessary cross-border obstacles. It is a national responsibility to ensure, to as high a degree as possible, that new legislation does not impose new barriers to cross-border mobility. In order to avoid such barriers, a unified approach is particularly desirable when implementing, e.g. EU/EEA law and other international obligations.

Where relevant during preparatory work on new legislation, the countries ought, therefore, to obtain information about similar legislation in the other Nordic countries. In order to contribute to the sum of knowledge about Nordic legislation, which is a prerequisite for a unified system, proposed legislation should, where relevant, also contain an account of similar legislation in the other Nordic countries.

Nordic co-operation on justice affairs helps to safeguard democratic decision-making processes in the Nordic countries and to ensure the legal rights of people and companies. This will maintain confidence in and the cohesion of the Nordic Region and its shared values. This work falls under objective 12 of the action plan for Our Vision 2030.

Within the framework of these strategic priorities, the justice sector prioritises the legal rights of people and companies, e.g. in relation to the digitalisation of the public sector.

In the period 2021–2024, the justice sector is implementing an inter-sectoral project on co-operation with MR-Digital with the aim of examining the issue of the legal rights of people and companies in connection with the digitalisation of the public sector.

Crime and terrorism cause insecurity and division in society. Work on crime prevention is, therefore, an important part of Nordic co-operation that aims to maintain confidence in and the cohesion of the Nordic Region and its shared values. This falls under objective 12 of the action plan for Our Vision 2030.

The Nordic countries face many of the same challenges in terms of crime and terrorism – challenges that are often cross-border in nature. The same applies to efforts to combat human trafficking, online sexual abuse and other sex crimes.

Close co-operation is therefore of great importance to the Nordic countries’ ability to deal with these challenges in the future.

This includes Nordic police co-operation, but also exchanges of knowledge on legislative initiatives, as well as funding and studies in the areas covered by the sector.

The co-operation must seek to improve contact and relations between the Nordic countries and help to enhance the countries’ competencies in topical areas. One concrete example of this is the sector’s efforts over many years to combat child sex abuse.

The work to promote unified legislation in the Nordic countries and Nordic benefit (as described in item 3.1 above) also helps to achieve a socially sustainable Nordic Region and meet objective 12 of the action plan for Our Vision 2030, e.g. within family law.