The coffee is black, strong and hot. The croissants filled with Copenhagen jam. Each Monday morning, around a well-laid breakfast table in a plush Brussels hotel, the chief representatives of the five Nordic nations come together to exchange views on how to help each other.
Three of them - Denmark, Finland and Sweden - are members of the EU, two - Norway and Iceland - are not. Nonetheless, strong cultural and historical bonds, and not least their membership of the Nordic Council, have brought to these five close confidants an indelible feeling of community within a community, and deep respect for the views and attitudes of each.
In 1952 the Nordic nations decided to set up a parliamentary body which would strengthen relations and co-operation between the countries and provide a forum where national policies could be viewed and developed from the perspective of those nations closest to them.
Until recently, the Nordic Council, and the Nordic Council of Ministers (its executive counterpart that was set up in 1971), have been little more than a good excuse to travel around the region for parliamentary meetings that did little but give members a chance to party. In the past four years, however, new geopolitical and, not least, financial requirements have forced the bodies to become leaner and meaner, to include in their portfolios previously taboo subjects such as defence, security, foreign policy, relations with the EU and how in unison they can gain influence.
The Danish Foreign Minister, Mr Niels Helveg Petersen, said Nordic co-operation "is something that we have often taken for granted".
"We all know each other so well and speak languages that can be understood by the others. But the fact of the matter is that we do take it for granted - that our civil servants and populations think in a similar fashion and we have networks that mean that we can work in unison in the forums we operate in." Meeting only once a year, the Nordic Council has brought into its domain issues - including defence and minorities - that have previously been held outside meetings in the parliamentary Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers.
"The Nordic Council has gone through a series of political and organisational changes over the past two or three years. The overriding purpose of the reforms has been to make Nordic parliamentary co-operation more dynamic and better able to meet new political demands. The ambition has been - and continues to be - to bring Nordic co-operation closer to the concerns of Nordic citizens," the Nordic Council Information Director, Mr Jan Dietz, said.
Nordic activities both within the Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers are concentrated on three main areas: traditional co-operation; relations with the adjacent areas - the three Baltic states, the St Petersburg region, the Kaliningrad enclave and the Kola peninsula; and European co-operation. "The new atmosphere within the organisation is still developing, with members gradually getting used to a more dynamic and result-oriented process. Recommendations were approved on such issues as a regional system for environmental accounting in energy, refugee policy in the Nordic countries, greater food safety, the condition of children in the adjacent areas, the EU Media Programme, legislative co-operation on gene technology and cloning, and respect for minority languages," said Mr Dietz.
"But the real innovation has been the inclusion of security policy within the terms of reference of the council." For the autonomous areas of the Nordic region - Greenland and the Faroe Islands which are part of Denmark, and Aland, which is part of Finland, the Nordic Council - of which they are full members, with their own flags and delegations - and the Nordic Council of Ministers - in which they have the right of response - have meant a clear voice in the workings of regional development and politics.