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 (4,465-foot) 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 on 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 [the] Finland centenary,” Solberg added. Prior to its independence, the “Grand Duchy of Finland” was part of the Russian empire.