Sweden - International cooperation

Having joined the UN on 19 November 1946, Sweden takes part in ECE and all the non-regional specialized agencies. The first UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in June 1972. Together with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway, Sweden has been a member of the advisory Nordic Council since 1953 and cooperates with these other Scandinavian countries in social welfare and health insurance and in freeing frontiers of passport control. Sweden is a signatory of the Law of the Sea and a member of the WTO. The nation is a member of the Asian Development Bank and the Council of Europe. Since 1974, Sweden has exceeded the UN target for official development assistance. In 1995, Sweden became a member of the EU; it rejected membership in the European economic and monetary union when it was first introduced in 1999. However, Sweden was due to hold a referendum on membership in the EMU in September 2003.