09.09.2005 · The Government

Prime Minister's speech at his visit in Western Isles

Dear honourable members of the “Comhairle nan Eilean Siar”, dear conveners, Ladies and gentlemen!

It is truly an honour and a pleasure for me to be here tonight. It is especially interesting for me; as this is my first ever visit to the beautiful Western Isles.

I think it is useful for us islanders of the North to meet in this way. We have many things in common, and I am grateful for this opportunity to share some ideas with you and discuss matters of importance to us all.

One obvious common precondition is of course the natural environment, being islands of the North western rim of the European Continent.

We have many other features in common; this is true when we look back in time at our history and see the common Norse and Celtic heritage in different mixes.

We also have many things in common, when looking at today’s challenges in an ever smaller world, where everything is moving faster, and faster still.

Just last month there was the Seventy Fifth Anniversary for the evacuation of the entire population of the remote island of St. Kilda here in the Western Isles.

Amongst the many scholars, who attended your Anniversary, were also some of our finest, such as Professor of ethnology Jóan Pauli Joensen from the University of the Faroes.

No wonder, for life in St. Kilda in those days resembled in many ways what we know from the more remote islands of the Faroes, where fouling for gannets, guillemots, puffins and other seabirds was of great importance to survive in those remote communities.

Admitting not to be an expert in the field, I nevertheless find that one of the most important lessons of the St. Kilda experience is the following, and I know that Professor Jóan Pauli a couple of weeks ago stressed the same argument.

The point is this: Within some reasonable margins – and possibly St. Kilda just fell outside those margins at one point in time – it is not the size of an island community, nor its remoteness to a greater mainland that determines its ability to survive, thrive and develop.

Rather it is the island population’s degree of self-reliance, guts, visions and willingness, or ability to make innovations, which determines its ability to confront new challenges and develop ways of coping with them.

One paramount lesson from the Faroes is that you have got to have a sense of your island society being its own centre of gravity for the development in that society, be it in the area of business and economy, politics, or culturally. Those things are bound together and the mix between them is what makes up our sense of identity.

And again, a strong and positively perceived sense of identity is what makes our islands our centre of gravity.

I am aware that on the political and cultural levels there are important differences between the Faroes and your archipelagos.

But because we have this summer enacted two bills that have in a profound sense redefined our relationship to Denmark, you may be interested in a brief description of the new legislation.

I’m referring to the Transfer of Competencies Act and the Foreign Policy Act.

Let me first make it clear that we are talking about two similar sets of legislation put through both the Faroese parliament and the Danish parliament, because it is based on agreement between the two parties.

The new thing about the Transfer of Competencies Act is that many more areas can now be taken over by the Faroese authorities from Denmark.

Moreover it is now the Faroese parliament alone, who decides unilaterally both what area that is to be transferred, and when this is to happen.

According to the old Home Rule Act of 1948 both the “what” and the “when” regarding several important areas such as the resources of the subsoil, the Public church and the Police had to be agreed on through negotiation, in reality giving Denmark total vetoing powers in those matters.

After 17 years of negotiations we took over the subsoil, but the church and many other areas still remain under Danish authority.

Now that has changed. This government is committed to take over the civil emergency preparedness, Company law and other business legislation and the Public church in addition to some other, minor areas.

The Foreign Policy Act empowers within certain limits the Faroese government to negotiate and conclude agreements under international law with other states and international organizations and under certain circumstances to become a member in its own name of international organizations.

The Act provides that the Faroes can act on their own in the international arena regarding issues that are fully under Faroese authority.

Examples of such areas are fisheries regulation, education, transport (except civil aviation), tourism, trade, culture and there are many more.

When we met last time in the Faroes, we had some very good and open minded discussions. We encircled certain areas that we found of being of common interest for all four archipelagos:

Those were:
- Management of the fisheries resources
- Aquaculture
- Oil exploration and production
- Infrastructure, especially transportation
- Culture and sports
- Sustainable energy production from renewable sources

We also touched upon issues regarding the marine environment and tourism.

I am still convinced that these are interesting areas for us to consider in this forum.

Of course we must not be so overenthusiastic that we throw over selves overboard trying to jointly solve all problems in all those areas simultaneously.

In some of the areas we may be well helped just by the opportunity to express some interesting ideas and to share experiences with each other.

In other areas we may want more concrete cooperation. I have, of course, no final answers in this respect, but I think that each of us may have some ideas and it will be interesting to learn about them in a the rather informal and sharing environment that I feel this is.

Let me just make a brief comment on infrastructure, as I know this is something that preoccupies all islanders.

Today we are not only confronted with the problems relating to the most efficient and satisfactory ways of moving people and goods between our islands, between our archipelagos and the rest of the world.

No. The contemporary problems of infrastructure are, as you are well aware, also such as how to provide sufficient telecommunications and internet services etc. to our populations.

Regarding environmentally sustainable production of energy, Scotland is particularly interesting, as you have a pilot project producing electricity from sea waves.

The Faroese inter municipal electricity company SEV is now inn cooperation with the Scottish company, Wavegen engaged in developing a sea wave electricity plant in the Faroes as pilot project that we in the Faroes are very excited and hopeful about. We also find it most interesting that the Western Isles have been able to attract a company that has established it self here specialising in production of components for sea ware energy production.

So, what kind of cooperation are we talking about?

As I said, first of all I find it useful that we meet and share thoughts and experiences between our archipelagos, both on a political level and on a more operational or practical level, and by the latter I mean between people involved in a broad variety of activities, spanning from areas like energy planning all the way over to performers in the cultural sector such as choirs and musicians.

I am looking forward to hearing what ideas you may have and to an open minded discussion here in the Western Isles.
 
Thank you

Jóannes Eidesgaard
Prime Minister