Info Norden: Highlights in 2024

Info Norden is one of the tools used by the Nordic Council of Ministers in their work to help make it easier for people to move between the Nordic countries and to make the most of the opportunities available. In 2024, the information service succeeded in reaching even more citizens, and it contributed actively to the identification and reduction of border obstacles that were continuing to pose challenges to individuals and businesses.

• Record numbers seek information about opportunities in the Nordic Region: In 2024, Info Norden’s pages were visited 2.5 million times across more than three million page views. They received 24.8 percent more visits compared to 2023. These figures are the highest ever. Norway continues to be the country that most visitors seek information about: 30 percent of the pages visited in 2024 were about Norway. The greatest rise in visitor numbers came from countries outside of the Nordic Region (+39 percent), while pages on Finland experienced the biggest relative rise in page views (+70 percent).
• An increasing number of Info Norden users are able to find the information they need online: Info Norden responded to 4,411 enquiries in 2024. The number of enquiries fell by 4.4 percent compared to the year before. The growing number of visitors to Info Norden websites seems to suggest that more users are able to find the information they need, without having to contact Info Norden. The number of enquiries relative to the number of web visits fell from 2.3 enquiries per every 1000 web visits in 2023 to just 1.7 in 2024. This outcome is in line with Info Norden’s aim to ensure that as many users as possible can find the answers they need on norden.org. 
• New guides provide users with an overview: In recent years, Info Norden has developed guides which are aimed at specific target groups and cover concrete situations. In 2024, Info Norden published guides on remote and hybrid working, relocating as an elderly person and, in collaboration with Nordjobb, guides on temporary residence and seasonal work. Over the course of the year, Info Norden has worked together with the welfare authorities of the Nordic countries to further develop its information on social welfare benefits.
• Info Norden is a part of wider efforts to reduce border obstacles in the Nordic Region: Of the enquiries that Info Norden addressed in 2024, 201 concerned situations in which users experienced challenges to their freedom of movement in the Nordic Region. Info Norden has been in dialogue with the Freedom of Movement Council about potential new obstacles, and four of these have been reported to the council’s secretariat in the Nordic Council of Ministers. Info Norden also participates in regional border councils, simplification groups and national border-obstacle networks. 

We appreciated Info Norden's visit and the opportunity to share practices in advising citizens. Their system, designed for the specificities of the Nordic region, is an excellent model for supporting mobile citizens. The visit provided valuable feedback by identifying common challenges and trends, closely aligned with ECAS work and YEA observations. It highlighted the importance of greater network interaction to foster innovation and improve support for citizen mobility across European regions. 

• Cross-border co-operation to boost Nordic and Baltic career portals: In 2024, co-operation was established between Info Norden, the Nordic Council of Ministers and Euroguidance and the public education and career portals in the Nordic Region and the Baltic countries. The objective here is to exchange experiences, develop good networks across borders and discuss the development of digital solutions that make it easier for citizens to navigate work and student life in the Nordic Region. A two-day conference in Tromsø marked the start of the collaboration, and the network is planning new activities for 2025. 
• 70 Years of a common Nordic labour market: The agreement on a common Nordic labour market has existed since 1954. In collaboration with the Swedish Ministry of Employment, the Swedish Public Employment Service, Nordregio and the Norden i Fokus project, Info Norden organised an anniversary conference in Malmö. Discussions were held about how it can be made easier for people and businesses to make use of the opportunities in other Nordic countries, problems relating to the use of digital solutions across borders and how they can be solved, the importance of facilitating remote workers, the need for the Nordic Region to become a more attractive prospect for external labour and the importance of making it easier for people from outside the EU-EEA to take work across borders.
• Freedom of movement in the Nordic Region and Europe: The efforts being made to improve freedom of movement within the Nordic Region go hand in hand with a range of other European initiatives. In 2024, Info Norden exchanged experiences with several other European services and programmes, and this included a visit to Brussels. Meetings with Single Digital Gateway, Your Europe, European Citizen Action Service, Your Europe Advice, Europass and eIDAS have shown that there is huge potential for dialogue and collaboration.  
• Info Norden puts freedom of movement on the agenda all across the Nordic Region: Info Norden has put the Nordic Region on the agenda at several of the countries’ democracy festivals, as well as Nordic Day, Järvaveckan, West Nordic Day and Denmark’s Margretedagene. Border obstacles in the business sector, digital obstacles and solutions, security, the labour market of the future, vocational education programmes and integration in the Nordic Region were all discussed by politicians, business representatives, researchers and others who work with these issues. 
• Co-operation with Nordic embassies places focus on citizens and businesses: Over the course of many years, Info Norden has developed a close level of collaboration with the Nordic embassies. In 2024, Info Norden dialogued with almost all of the Nordic embassies across the different countries. This dialogue is relevant to the exchange of information about what is happening in the countries and what challenges citizens face when moving, working and studying in the Nordic Region.

Working in collaboration with Info Norden, Euroguidance Norway and the Nordic Council of Ministers were able to establish a Nordic-Baltic network for education portals in 2024.  Info Norden has been an invaluable partner in the implementation of our webinars, and not least, our big conference in Tromsø. Info Norden participated in the programme committee and served as group leader in both the webinars and at the in-person event. We look forward to enjoying even more great co-operation with Info Norden in the future now that the network is established.

• Info Norden awarded prize for good service to citizens: Info Norden was awarded the prize for Nordic Achievement of the Year 2024 from the Youth League of the Finnish Norden Association (PNU) in recognition of ‘its long-term and positive co-operation, which has raised awareness among young people about the opportunities and challenges that exist in moving, studying and working in the Nordic Region’. 
• Enhanced focus on border obstacles and new organisation for Info Norden: From 2025, Info Norden will become a part of the Ministers for Nordic Co-Operartion’s new six-year programme for freedom of movement in the Nordic Region. The aim of the programme is to reduce border obstacles, promote freedom of movement for both people and businesses and improve co-operation between the different working with border obstacles and the dissemination of information. From 2025, the administration of Info Norden will be transferred from the Nordic Associations and NORA to Nordic institutions in the individual countries.

Examples of new and old problems faced by Info Norden users in 2024.

• Digital obstacles: As a general rule, digital services make it easier for citizens to communicate with public authorities, but there is a digital wall between the countries. It is largely impossible to log into public-sector services using an electronic identification method from another Nordic country. Even on websites which allow citizens to log in and access the services of a public authority in another Nordic country, there is no tool available that can verify the identities of individuals across the various national systems. 
• Information exchange between civil population registers: When a person moves from one Nordic country to another and registers there, a number of details are exchanged between the population registers. However, subsequent moves and other changes, such as changes to the person’s name or civil status (e.g. marriage, divorce and parenthood) are not exchanged. Nor is information exchanged automatically between countries whenever a person becomes deceased. 
• Powers of attorney and guardianship: An ever greater number of users visit Info Norden to ask whether future powers of attorney and other forms of guardianship will apply across borders in the Nordic Region. The lack of international rules in this area means there are no clear and general answers to these questions.
• Case-processing times: Many citizens experience long processing times from the public authorities when they move between the Nordic countries or when public authorities in two or more countries need to exchange information with each other. For example, this is the case for population registers and welfare authorities, and in cases involving the importation of cars and citizenship applications.
• Recognition of qualifications in Sweden for Icelandic specialist doctors: Doctors in Iceland who wish to train as specialists in Sweden have had problems meeting the requirements for base training (BT) in Sweden when pursuing a specialist diploma in Sweden.
• Bank accounts: Many banks in the Nordic Region decline to open bank accounts for people who do not have a registered address in the population register of that country. This affects cross-border commuters, newly arrived people, holiday-home owners and people who live in another country than a relative for whom they are a guardian. In some cases, this can pose a barrier when attempting to buy property in another country. 
• Loan of foreign cars: It is not possible to loan a car which is registered in another Nordic country and drive it in your own country of residence without the owner being present in the car. This is because the person borrowing the car is considered the primary user, and duty-free use of the car is not permitted. It is not possible to document a temporary loan in writing, either. This problem is especially relevant in border areas where people cross the border on a daily basis.
• Danish taxation of pension savings abroad: People who live in Denmark find that returns on foreign pension savings are taxed as income in Denmark, yet at the same time, they are unable to withdraw or transfer the foreign savings.

What is Info Norden?