What are the expectations for a Ph.D. candidate in Scandinavia in particular? I am willing to pursue a PhD degree in Northern Europe (mostly in Scandinavia).
So, I take advice from differen professors of my university.

The exact question I asked was:


  I want to complete my PhD degree in a Scandinavian Country


Some of them told me that it does not matter where I want to go.
Others told me that it changes with respect to the region I want to go.

I was ready to be satisfied with only one common advise, however, most of them told me completely different expectations.

They can be summarized as:


Cumulative GPA should be 4.00/4.00.
You should publish a conference paper.
You must publish a journal paper in a mediocre journal.
Most important thing is getting very good reference letters.
It is just luck. You should give every university a try.
They mostly look at your cover letter.
You should find someone that you know from that university. He/she should advise you.


Are these sentences professors' own expectations? Or are some of them completely true?

Or...
Should I take all of them into consideration?

To sum up:
I am pursuing a PhD in Scandinavia. What should I do? Are the expected qualifications same as US or Asian countries?
In Finland, you usually start your PhD studies after your MSc studies. If you don't have an MSc yet, get it first.

Other than that, there are no unusual requirements or expectations. You just have to convince your potential supervisor that you personally are the best person in the world for this position. Hiring a PhD student is a huge investment — in the ballpark of hundreds of thousands of euros of grant money, plus numerous hours of their time to supervise the student — and you really have to convince the professor that you are worth all that.

A fairly common approach is to do your MSc studies in the same place, get to know the professors, work as a summer intern in their research groups, write a MSc thesis under their supervision, etc., and this way gradually convince them that you really are not just an excellent student but you also could become an excellent researcher.