The Northern Dimension : Interdependence, specialisation and some popular misconceptions

Abstract

The Northern Dimension of European Union policy is no longer a Finnish initiative but official Union policy, adopted at the Autumn 1998 Vienna Summit.The contents of the initiative still remain to specified during the German and Finnish Presidencies of 1999.This speech, delivered at a May 1999 conference on EU's Finnish Presidency in London, discusses in somewhat light-hearted spirit some of the popular misconceptions of the Northern Dimension: that it is a money making mill, that it is only about Russia etc. Keywords: European Union, the Northern Dimension, Finland's EU Presidency