Kimmo Kohvakka: Collaboration within the civil protection between the Nordic Countries

Kimmo Kohvakka
Director General for Rescue Services
Ministry of the Interior
Finland

Civil Preparedness cooperation has traditionally, in the first place, been considered a national responsibility of each country. It is an area where for example EU and NATO have had quite a limited presence.

On the other hand, the Nordic cooperation in this regard has been active over the years. Nordic societies are generally considered resilient towards crises.

A central part of the cooperation has, since 2009, been the so called Haga cooperation. The ministers responsible for civil protection met at the Haga Palace outside Stockholm for discussions on strengthened Nordic cooperation in the area. The common and overarching goal of the political Haga cooperation is to prevent and limit the potential consequences of major accidents, natural disasters and other crises and emergencies. The vulnerabilities and threats, are to a large extent common in nature in all the Nordic countries and there is a shared understanding of the value of cooperation in strengthening the resilience of the societies in the region. Haga cooperation gives a regional example of strenghtening resilience. The cooperation is based on political declarations (Haga I from 2009 and Haga II from 2013).

There are differences in how the countries each organize their work in civil preparedness and there are also differences in the arrangement of the various Haga ministers’ specific responsibilities. In 2023 Denmark is represented by the Minister of Defence, Sweden by the Minister of Civil Defence (in the Ministry of Defence) Norway by Minister of Justice and Public Security, Iceland by the Minister of Justice and Finland by the Minister of the Interior.

There are also differences between the Nordics when it comes to the organization of the work on the operational level. In Denmark, Sweden and Norway there are dedicated civil preparedness Agencies, which report to the Ministries in charge. In Iceland the Civil Protection and Emergency Management under the Police, is in charge also for these questions. In Finland the Department for Rescue services in the Ministry of the Interior has a double role. It is covering both the ministerial policy questions and is in charge for coordinating the operational work. There is pros and cons for both arrangements. A dedicated Agency for these themes would most probably give more operational resources.

In the beginning of 2023, the Nordic Directors-Generals in charge for civil preparedness decided to intensify operational co-operation at agency level by establishing a Nordic NordCiv Secretariat to structure and coordinate the work. The model for the secretariat was the Nordefco Secretariat of the Defence Administration. The Secretariat has prepared its own rules of procedure and an annual work scheme on the key events in Nordic co-operation. The secretariat's task is to support and coordinate the preparation of Directors-General's meetings and other Nordic meetings, and to provide input for Nordic co-operation at political level (Haga level). From Finland the Ministry of the Interior participates in the work.

The civil-military cooperation is an increasingly important part of also civil preparedness. In general, the Finnish comprehensive security model does not make rigid distinctions between military and civil preparedness, as these in many cases are interlinked. The Defence Forces may provide executive assistance to other authorities to protect the society.

The civil-military cooperation is also a vital topic in the Nordic cooperation and the so-called Haga-Nordefco cooperation has been established in 2021. As a new NATO ally we find this cooperation to be an increasingly important topic. The experiences from old Nato allies Denmark, Norway and Iceland in this regard are especially interesting. We know they have had promising development on mutual dialogue between the civil and military sides in the area of civil preparedness.

The Nordic countries are members in the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). Its activities have gained more importance due to the drastically changed safety situation in the Baltic Sea Region. Russian aggression against Ukraine has strengthened the need in the CBSS Member States to cooperate with respect to resilience of the citizens, preparedness in the region and for more harmonised practices. During the Finnish presidency (July 2023 – June 2024) common priorities focus on citizens - to strengthen their safety and security awareness, resilience and their own preparedness.

The role of the CBSS could be more active, building more harmonized processes in the region as well as strengthening the dialogue with the EU DG ECHO and the UNDRR. In these topics the Nordic Countries with democratic and well-developed civil societies can have a more visible and pro-active role now and also in the near future.