The Nordic Council is the parliamentary body for official Nordic co-operation and can thus be compared to Inatsisartut in a Nordic context. The council has 87 elected members from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, who are selected from the parliaments of the Nordic countries on the basis of proposals from the party groups. No direct elections are held to the Nordic Council.

The Nordic Council, chaired by the Bureau, meets for two annual meetings – the Nordic Council session and the theme session. The Nordic Council’s session is the Nordic summit and the biggest Nordic political event of the year. The Nordic parliamentarians make decisions on issues that they want the Nordic governments to find solutions to. The Nordic Council makes proposals and continuously tries to influence the Nordic governments to find common Nordic solutions that have a positive effect. In addition to the elected 87 members from the Nordic parliaments, co-operation ministers and prime ministers will attend the session.

In 2019, the Nordic prime ministers approved the new common vision “Our vision 2030 – The Nordic region must become the world’s most sustainable and integrated region”. The three strategic priorities are: a green Nordic region, a competitive Nordic region and a socially sustainable Nordic region. The new vision will apply from the beginning of 2021.