Date: 16 December 2002

Ten years of Barents Euro-Arctic cooperation to be celebrated in Kirkenes 10-11 January

On Friday 10 and Saturday 11 January 2003, 10 years of Barents Euro-Arctic cooperation will be celebrated in Kirkenes in Northern Norway, where the project was launched on 11 January 1993. Participants will be the Nordic Prime Ministers Kjell Magne Bondevik (Norway), Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark), Paavo Lipponen (Finland), Göran Persson (Sweden) and David Oddsson (Iceland); Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Kasianov and leading representatives of the EU Presidency and the EU Commission. Present will also be representatives of the Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Russian regions participating in the cooperation, and of aboriginal peoples in the Barents region.

Former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorvald Stoltenberg, central in constructing the Barents Euro-Arctic cooperation in 1993, will also participate.

On Friday evening 10 January and Saturday morning 11 January celebrations will take place aboard the newest Norwegian coastal ship, the "MS Trollfjord", in Kirkenes harbour. The "Trollfjord" normally sails the route Kirkenes-Bergen. On Saturday afternoon 11 January celebrations will continue at the Kirkenes Borderland Museum, where participants will experience "arctic tableaus" in the wintry dusk.

The whole press release from the Office of the Prime Minister.