The Northern Future Forum, Opening sesion (8515666594)

Northern Future Forum is an annual, informal meeting of prime ministers, policy innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders from the 9 nations of

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Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, Latvia, Lithuania,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, Sweden and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Initially referred to as the UK Nordic Baltic Summit, the name Northern Future Forum was introduced at the second meeting in Stockholm, 2012. The group had a period of abeyance since the Stavanger meeting in 2016 was postponed following the outcome of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, and David Cameron subsequently stepping down as UK prime minister, to be succeeded by

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...

. The summit was reconvened in October 2018 in Oslo. Former Swedish prime minister

Fredrik Reinfeldt John Fredrik Reinfeldt (pronounced ; born 4 August 1965) is a Swedish economist, lecturer, and former politician who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014, and chairman of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 2003 to 2015. He ...

first suggested that the UK and

Nordic-Baltic Eight Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) is a regional co-operation format that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. Under NB8, regular meetings are held of the Baltic and Nordic countries' Prime Ministers, S ...

nations have a summit during his November 2010 visit to the UK, following the UK general election in May and David Cameron becoming prime minister of the UK coalition government.

Summits

The Northern Future Forum was established to be a more relaxed meeting than usual international summits, with more of a collegiate atmosphere where leaders are encouraged to learn and interact with experts in the topics under discussion, rather than delivering set-piece speeches or engaging in behind-the-scenes trading. Described in a press release from

Erna Solberg Erna Solberg (; born 24 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician and the current Leader of the Opposition. She served as the 35th prime minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, and has been Leader of the Conservative Party since May 2004. Solberg w ...

announcing the 2016 meeting in Norway as ‘ heNFF is a little unusual, but very exciting meeting place for us politicians. In this concept, we get a different insights into innovative trends, presented by today's experts and entrepreneurs, who in different ways are building what is our common future’

London 2011

On the 19–20 January London hosted the inaugural UK-Nordic-Baltic meeting at

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

in the East End of London. The first summit hosted 120 participants and touched on themes of improving business ties in the region, with a focus on low carbon and high-tech industries. Other topics included how best to foster equality, wellbeing and competitiveness in the economic climate during the

2008–2012 global recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

. *Technology and Innovation *Jobs, Family and Gender Equality *Green Economy and Sustainable Business The British Prime Minister, David Cameron ended the first summit calling for a new alliance of Northern European nations.

Stockholm 2012

The second summit on the 8–9 February, was hosted in Stockholm. The second meeting saw the name changed to the "Northern Future Forum". The event was hosted in Fotografiska, The Swedish Museum of Photography, in the

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is a district and island in central Stockholm. Overview The district covers the large island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''). Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, wa ...

district of the city. Conference topics intended to focus on long-term

sustainable growth Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desi ...

were: *How do we get more women into top positions and more women entrepreneurs? *How do we get senior citizens to stay longer in the labour force?

Riga 2013

The third summit was held on February 27–28, 2013 in Riga, Latvia. The opening and closing plenary were held in the Latvian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design with discussions and a media centre at Hotel Konventa sēta. At the Stockholm 2012 meeting the Latvian prime minister

Valdis Dombrovskis Valdis Dombrovskis (born 5 August 1971) is a Latvian politician serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People since 2019 and European Commissioner for Trade since 2020. He previously serve ...

had proposed that Riga could host the next forum meeting, which was supported by the other members. Two main issues chosen for the Forum: * Can the green economy be competitive? * Addressing the digital divide in society The Finnish Prime Minister

Jyrki Katainen Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born 14 October 1971) is a Finnish politician who served as the European Commission's Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness from 2014 until 2019. Katainen was previously Prime Minister of Finland fr ...

, was unable to attend due to domestic political reasons, and was represented by Olli-Pekka Heinonen, state secretary to the PM’s bureau, and state secretary to the Finnish Economy and Employment Ministry Marja Rislakki. The British PM David Cameron returned to his country shortly after the opening plenary meetings, replaced by Planning Minister

Nick Boles Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (born 2 November 1965) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham and Stamford from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Conservative Party until 2019. Before entering Parliament ...

. David Cameron met with Latvian PM Valdis Dombrovskis the evening before the forum opening in order to discuss Latvia and the UK’s bilateral relations, including economic cooperation and problems within the EU.

Helsinki 2014

At the closing plenary in Riga 2013, Marja Rislakki, State Secretary of the Ministry of Employment and Economy of Finland made a proposal to hold the Northern Future Forum 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. The NFF convened in Helsinki during 6–7 November 2014 at the

Startup Sauna Aaltoes, also known as Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, is a non-profit organization run by students, based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 2009, Aaltoes has helped the rapid emergence of a startup culture in Finland in 2008-2011. Aaltoes's purp ...

business accelerator of

Aalto University Aalto University ( fi, Aalto-yliopisto; sv, Aalto-universitetet) is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the ...

's Otaniemi campus. The discussion themes of the 2014 meeting were: *Competitiveness of education systems *Promotion of innovative business activity.

Reykjavik 2015

At the Helsinki meeting the

Prime Minister of Iceland The prime minister of Iceland ( is, Forsætisráðherra Íslands) is Iceland's head of government. The prime minister is appointed formally by the president and exercises executive authority along with the cabinet subject to parliamentary suppo ...

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson (; born 12 March 1975) is an Icelandic politician who was the prime minister of Iceland from May 2013 until April 2016. He was also chairman of the Progressive Party from 2009 to October 2016. He was elected to th ...

invited delegates to Reykjavik for the next Northern Future Forum. The meeting was held on 28–29 October at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

, being held in continuation of the 67 session of the Nordic Council in Reykjavik. Themes for this year's meeting were: *The importance of creative industries *Innovation as a catalyst for change in the way public service is run. Attending the forum British Prime Minister David Cameron became the first British Premier to officially visit Iceland since it became a republic in 1944, the last being

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

in August 1941, over 70 years previously.

Oslo 2018

In 2018, the Northern Future Forum was held on the 29–30 October at the Oslo Cancer Cluster, replacing the postponed 2016 meeting. The 2016 Northern Future Forum was due to be held in Stavanger on 26–27 October 2016, though was initially stated to be postponed to an unknown future date, following David Cameron's resignation as British Prime Minister after the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum and

's appointment as UK Prime Minister. Themes for the forum were to include: *How innovation and new technology can contribute to economic development. *How a sharing economy can affect the labour market.

Commentary

Media commentary as to wider implications of the Northern Future Forum have been varied, with the Swedish press being quite skeptical during the second meeting in Stockholm. The Local (Sweden) stated that the ‘meeting might have a longer-term strategic purpose, at least for British Prime Minister David Cameron: to forge a long-term alliance between the Northern European countries,’ and writing that there appeared to be a ''"risk that David Cameron wants the northern partnership to challenge Brussels."'' The pro-EU liberal

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ' ...

suggested: ‘Behind the scenes, this “Northern Alliance” will also debate ways to frustrate a “French model” for the European economy.’ A Dagens Nyheter Editorial described the second assembly as a ''"meeting with risks",'' seeing it as being potentially divisive within the EU.

The Baltic Times ''The Baltic Times'' is an independent monthly newspaper that covers the latest political, economic, business, and cultural events in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The paper was formed from a merger in 1996 of the ''Baltic Independent'' and '' ...

saw the forum as a mirror to the Mediterranean Union proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy with Nouvelle-Europe comparing it to other groupings of EU members such as the

Visegrád Group The Visegrád Group (also known as the Visegrád Four, the V4, or the European Quartet) is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-op ...

. The Lithuania Tribune noted that the forum is unique as a pan-European meeting in that there are no negotiations, and no conditional agreements reached during the event. Stating that given the contemporary

European sovereign-debt crisis The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone memb ...

the discussion topics at the Stockholm meeting rendered the group a rather peripheral event. However, the article also suggested that the informal nature of the forum raised an antidote to increasing mistrust between European nations in the wake of the eurozone crisis. The initial founding of the group in 2011 met with some trepidation among the Russian media, fearing the group could amount to an ‘Arctic branch of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

’, which may act to ease the accession of neutral Finland and Sweden into the alliance.

References

External links