The Norwegian government has resisted public pressure to offer a mountain summit to neighbouring Finland as part of its independence centenary celebrations.
As a present to their Finnish neighbours, celebrating their independence since 1917, a group of Norwegians had proposed giving them the peak of the 1,361-metre high Mount Halti.
The gift would have been a neat way of correcting a geographical incongruity, as the Finnish border in the area is situated most of the way up the mountainside at an altitude of 1,324 metres.
A Facebook campaign to hand over the immovable present garnered 17,000 signatures.
But a legal roadbump brought the friendly scheme tumbling down, halting the Halti plan.
“This creative proposal has received a very positive response from the public,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in a letter received Friday by the major of Kafjord, in northern Norway, who was a protagonist in the mountainous gift.
“I welcome this and I see a clear sign that Norway and Finland have a close relationship,” Solberg continued, while adding that “border adjustments between countries raises complex legal issues.”
In this case the problems were insurmountable.
The lofty gift-giving idea ran up against Article 1 of the Norwegian constitution which stipulates that the kingdom of Norway is “indivisible and inalienable”.
“We will think of another worthy gift to celebrate the occasion of Finland centenary,” Solberg added.
