Finland urges Norden to cope with challenges risking welfare system

Finland underlined the need to secure the continuity of the welfare state structures throughout the Nordic area as it began its rotating presidency of the Nordic Council on Monday, reported Xinhua.

"The themes of the Finnish tenure are the future of the Nordic welfare formula and sustainable North," Council President Erkki Tuomioja told a virtual gathering, where the Presidency of the Council and all four committees meet remotely.

Established in 1952, the Nordic Council is a cooperative forum for the parliaments of the five Nordic countries including Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland.

"Continuity can be assured through the focus on basic services, wellbeing, high employment level, and a sound fiscal base," Tuomioja was quoted in a press release.

The Finnish blueprint noted that new challenges of the Nordic economies put the welfare model to a test. It listed "economic insecurity, widening inequality and a deterioration in the dependency ratio due to an aging population" as problems. It also referred to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We want to make a critical assessment of the current state and challenges of the Nordic model and must openly face the problems that the welfare model encounters in the 2020s," the Finnish document said.