What are the issues that are preventing the furthering of children’s rights in the Nordic Region? Tuomas Kurttila, the Ombudsman for Children in Finland, recently met his Nordic colleagues. He was present in Tampere to discuss his experiences with parliamentarians in the Culture, Education and Training Committee, the Welfare Committee and the Citizens’ and Consumer Rights Committee.

At its own meeting, the Nordic Council Presidium was due to discuss the issue of future collaboration between the Nordic Council and Russia. On the agenda was also the Nordic Council of Ministers’ budget for 2015, which is to be adopted at the session of the Nordic Council in Stockholm on 28-30 October.

The Environment and Natural Resources Committee is responsible for considering the implementation of the EU’s Sulphur Directive, which will come into force on 1 January 2015.

The Nordic Council put forward a number of its own recommendations regarding how the Nordic countries could work together to ease the implementation of the Directive. One of the issues for discussion at the Tampere meeting was how to follow up these recommendations as a means of mitigating the potential consequences of the Sulphur Directive on certain regions and industries in the Nordic Region.