On Tuesday 6 February, the chairman of the Nordic Logistics Association (NLA), Erik Østergaard and NLA CEO, Torsten Laksafoss Holbek met with the Nordic Council’s Committee on Growth and Development to call for a strengthened Nordic cooperation on transport and infrastructure, and the need to re-establish a formal Nordic Council of Transport Ministers.
During the meeting with the Nordic parliamentarians, NLA shared its experience in enhancing the cooperation between the founding members of NLA – SÅ, NLF, SKAL and DTL – over the latest 10 years. Particularly, NLA showcased how the strong and close cooperation have helped achieving significant results at European and national level. In 2019 NLA joined forces with the German and French counterparts of BGL and FNTR via the establishment of Common Road Transport Office in Brussels. This joint effort led to a successful adoption of Mobility Package 1 leading to new posting, cabotage and driving and rest time rules that ensures level playing field for road transport in Europe.
In a fast changing and competitive environment, a close coordination among Nordic Ministers will help to safeguard Nordic interests. Looking ahead climate change and green transition will call for an increased Nordic coordination in areas such as roll out of recharging infrastructure and creating cross border flows of renewable energy into the electricity grid.
NLA looks forward to working with the Nordic Council towards the objective of getting a formalised Nordic Council of Ministers to work with common challenges both at Nordic and European level in the coming decades.
