Ladies and Gentlemen.

Iceland has the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers during the year 2009. This happens every fifth year and during our pecidency we promote the common ideas, policies and goals of the Nordic ministers and the Nordic cooperaration. Beside that, we make our own programme for the pesidency, where we emphasize what we want to make our priorities during the year of the presidcency and this time we in the Ministry decided, that we would make one common, cross-sectorial programme for research, education and culture. This was a great challenge as it was for the first time that this aproach was made, but

I am very satisfied with the programme which got the name „Education, Creativity and Entrepreneurship in an Era of Global Change“.

One chapter in the programme is called Increased Diversity in Cultural Co-operation where we try to bring a new aspect in the Nordic cooperation in the filed of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Nordic countries have worked fruitfully together for decades in the areas of culture, both within the Nordic region and internationally, but these areas are not necessarily under the organization of the Nordic Council of Ministers. We thought it could be interesting to bring some of these cultural areas on the agenda of the Nordic Council of Ministers to create a platform for a discussion. For an example, it can be useful to link together Nordic co-operation to UNESCO´s international conventions on cultural diversity, cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. There is already intensive co-operation on the common Nordic cultural heritage involving the relevant institutions and ministries, but we can do more. A greater effort could be made in connection with the Nordic countries´ association with the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the Nordic World Heritage Foundation in Oslo and Sweden’s participation in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

There are two aspects that caracterize the Nordic cooperation every fifth year, that is when Iceland har the presidency. We often have a special focus on the common cultural heritage in the Nordic region and we make an effort to focus more than the other Nordic countries on the western part of the region and our neighbours there. That is why one of the aims in the present programme is „to arrange a conference on cultural ties between the Nordic countries and the

British Isles, particularly the islands off the Scottish coast“ - the reason for us being her today.

The theme of this conference is to look at the cultural bonds between Iceland and the Nordic countries on one hand and the British Isles and Scotland on the other. Originally this idea was born in the Nordic Association in Reykjavík in connection with the work they have been doing during the last years concerning the Old Norse religion and culture. We found this a very interesting idea so we decided to make it ours as it fits very wellin our priorities for the presidency.

I think that the lectures, that we are going to listen to today are very interesting. They cover a broad point of view and touch many aspects of the cultural connection between these two regions. They point out how the islands west of Scotland have influenced the Nordic culture. At the end of the conference two of our artists will perform and one of our leading actresses will show us how she uses this cultural heritage as an inspiration for her art an creativity.

I want to thank the Nordic Association for fostering the idea of this conference and the theme in the first place, and for allowing us in the Ministry to take it over and include the conference in our programme for the pesidency. I also want to thank them for doing all the practical preparation for this event. My gratitude goes to the lecturers that will share their knowledge on the subject with us. And finally I want to thank the Nordic House in Reykjavík and the University of Iceland for the cooperation in perparing this conference.

I am sure that we will have an intersting day here in the Nordic House.

Thank you.