Public lecture: How Åland became the only Nordic territorial autonomy to join the EU

Nasiffik - centre for foreign & security policy at Ilisimatusarfik invites to a public lecture with our visiting scholar Hasan Akintug from University of Helsinki titled: “How Åland became the only Nordic territorial autonomy to join the EU - A view from the EU debates during 1994”.

The Nordic countries’ relationship towards European integration (and thereby the European Union) has traditionally been very ambiguous. So ambiguous that some have even labeled the Nordic countries as ‘reluctant Europeans’.

The autonomous Åland fits this pattern, albeit with significant differences from its counterparts Greenland and the Faroe Islands which remain outside the union.

Åland became a part of the EU with significant exceptions from the harmonization process and after a thin margin in favour of membership in the first public vote.

The public lecture will focus on the period in which Åland ultimately had to make a decision on membership of the European Union and how the EU was discussed in the Åland Parliament during the two referendums in autumn 1994.

This presentation will be based on Hasan Akintug's report: The EU referendums on Åland: An overview of the EU debates in the Åland Parliament during autumn 1994.

Hasan Akintug has been a doctoral student at the Centre for Nordic Studies since 2021. Hasan was educated in Winnipeg, Morphou, Ankara, Turku and Helsinki. He holds a master's degree in European and Nordic Studies from the University of Helsinki and a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Public Administration from Hacettepe University. He is interested in contemporary political history, regional integration, minority issues and security policy. Akintug’s doctoral project is about the external policies of the autonomous polities (Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands) in the Nordic region. He is also affiliated with the Åland Islands Peace Institute and is a Europaeum Scholar within the 2022-23 cohort.

Coffee, tea and cake will be served - and everybody is welcome.