Nordic Member State collaboration to Address Obstacles

Abstract

The study examines the integration of the b-solutions initiative into the Nordic countries, a region with a long-standing history of cross-border cooperation dating back to the 1950s. While the Nordic Council pioneered its own systematic methodology for identifying "obstacles" through the Nordic Council’s Freedom of Movement Council and the inter-parliamentary Nordic Council Freedom of Movement Group, the research highlights how b-solutions has introduced a distinct European dimension by providing external expert resources and a focus on EU-wide cohesion. Although Nordic participation was initially slow, six specific cases were documented between 2018 and 2024, primarily along the Norwegian-Swedish and Danish-Swedish borders, covering diverse policy areas such as wood construction regulations, vocational education, and the complex social security and taxation issues faced by workers in the Øresund region. The analysis reveals that b-solutions offers a "jackpot" of academic and legal expertise that helps local actors surmount the perceived permanence of restrictive rules, though it often requires more subsequent work from the advised entities than initially marketed. Ultimately, while the Nordic model served as an inspiration for problem-focused European initiatives, the author concludes that Nordic actors remain underrepresented in the overall pool, and the continued success of the methodology depends on bridging the asymmetry effects of multi-level governance systems to turn administrative "rules" into flexible pathways for regional integration.