On 30 September and 1 October, Janusz Kahl, CEO in NordicHouse who also is Icelandic Honorary Consul in Krakow participated in the 9th Consular Conference held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Consular Conferences are generally held every five years. The first one was held in 1971. The aim of the conferences is to strengthen ties between the Honorary Consuls of Iceland and relevant stakeholders within Icelandic society and administration – by providing seminars, workshops and visits over a span of two days in Reykjavik.
Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir Minister for Foreign Affairs
The diplomatic missions, such as embassies and consulates, play an important role in states’ representation abroad. International trade, business, and investment — all of those contribute greatly to the rise of consular affairs. According to the 1963 Vienna Convention, there are two distinct kinds of consuls, namely career consular officers and honorary consular officers. While providing a broad juridical framework, there is no definition of what the honorary consul (HC) is, since countries decide the role of honorary consuls according to their diplomatic traditions. Honorary consuls are usually unpaid, they may not have citizenship of the sending country, and usually, they combine their consular post with other occupations. They can represent the sending country in cities, along with ordinary consulates and embassies, or be the only foreign mission.
According to the 2018-2019 report from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland to Alþingi, “honorary consuls, who do not receive a salary for their work, are important outposts of the Foreign Service, and their contribution is invaluable, not least in the field of civil service and business services of various kinds” (Skýrsla utanríkisráðherra um utanríkis- og alþjóðamál, 2019, p. 34). In the next report, the importance of honorary consuls’ work is stated again. The report says: “They work unselfishly to promote Iceland and pave the way for Icelandic export companies, but at the same time they provide Icelanders who have problems abroad with invaluable assistance in the field of civil services, incl. due to death, imprisonment or accident” (2019-2020 report by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland to Alþingi, 2020, p. 49). This is also stated in the answer of Guðlaug Þór Þórðarson to a question from Smári McCarthy: “Efforts are being made to have consuls in cities and areas where Iceland has interests to protect, such as business interests, and where it is considered necessary to provide assistance to Icelanders” (Svar utanríkisráðherra við fyrirspurn frá Smára McCarthy, 2018). In practice, the duties of honorary consuls are far from being limited to those listed in official documents, but they all serve for fulfilling these main missions: Civil service, business services, promoting Iceland and Icelandic companies.