First Sentence

"Seen from the outside, the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden may look relatively alike; they are all small centralized states without a federal tradition; all are very stable democracies with a tradition of minority and or coalition governments; three of them are monarchies, one talks of a 'Nordic welfare state model'; they have been co-operating for decades in the Nordic Council; and when any of the three that are members of the European Union (EU) - have held the rotating EU Presidency, they have all (more or less explicitly) referred to aspirations of supporting the emergence of a 'Nordic dimension" in the Union."