First Estonia-Sweden future cooperation report presented in Tallinn | News
The report was presented by Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa), Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde and authors Raul Eamets and Pär Nuder, according to a press release from the ministry.
Reinsalu said that as noted in the report, Estonian-Swedish cooperation is currently mainly affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the changing security situation in Europe, the energy crisis, significant climate change and global migration.
Regarding security, the Estonian foreign minister emphasized that Estonia supports and welcomes Sweden’s pending accession to NATO, which would contribute to strengthening the security of the entire region.
“Under the changed circumstances, we must also work to solve the energy crisis and move towards energy independence,” he said. “Both Estonia and Sweden are maritime countries, so we could do more together to develop wind power technology.”
He added that since both countries are also rich in forests, they should cooperate more closely for conservation and smart management of this natural resource as well.
The recently published report also recommends new collaboration opportunities in digitization.
“Both Estonia and Sweden are successful digital states but face similar challenges today, so we can jointly develop our cyber security and digitization capabilities,” Reinsalu said, adding that the Sweden-Estonia cooperation fund provides an excellent opportunity for further integration in digital matters. as it includes a program for young leaders and mutual scholarships for students.
The first report on future cooperation between Estonia and Sweden was written by Raul Eamets, professor of macroeconomics at the University of Tartu (TÜ), and Pär Nuder, board member of the Sweden-Estonia cooperation fund and former Swedish finance minister.
See Wednesday’s full presentation of the report below.
“Cooperation is too often based on nostalgia”
According to the report, climate change, digitalisation, energy policy and sustainable forestry are the primary policy areas where the authors see the most urgent need for closer cooperation.
“To realize those opportunities, we must overcome some threats: growing nationalism and protectionism, a lack of common institutions, and a ‘big brother’ attitude,” they write. “In our understanding, cooperation between our two countries is too often based on nostalgia rather than forward-looking projects.”
The authors see potential for closer cooperation on climate change in several areas, including joint research projects that analyze topics such as the effects of offshore wind farms on the Baltic Sea environment and how microplastics affect the ecosystem.
They also stress that climate change is closely linked to new, more sustainable policies as well. “The current geopolitical situation in Europe also highlights the necessity to transform the energy sector,” the report notes, adding that Estonia and Sweden could take a leading role on the issue, with potential areas of cooperation including smart grids, new energy storage solutions, offshore wind farms and hydrogen transmission networks.
Eamets and Nuter highlight that both Sweden and Estonia have been successful in digitization, in the private and public sectors respectively, and that both countries face similar challenges. The two countries can learn from each other, with areas of great potential for cooperation and growth including cyber security, AI, blockchain and digital health.
Regarding the policy area of sustainable forestry, the authors noted that there are several conflicting goals involved in forestry – including carbon sequestration, forests as a source of energy, biodiversity and the growth of the forest industry – and that both countries are grappling with these issues. “We should work together to find solutions to balance economic and environmental interests,” they write.
Policy proposals in five dimensions
According to the authors, the policy proposals outlined in the new report were based on “discussion and ideas derived from numerous interviews and workshops, in which different people with different experiences and knowledge participated.”
They noted that some participants had general knowledge of both countries, some were experts in specific areas, and some were opinion leaders, politicians, and academics.
The authors presented their policy proposals in five dimensions: among other things from people to people, government to government, municipality to municipality, business to business and university to university.
Within the people-to-people dimension, Eamets and Nuder proposed the establishment of a “Center for Swedish-Estonian cooperation” similar to Hanaholmen/Hanasaari, located just outside Helsinki, which promotes cooperation between Finland and Sweden.
The authors encouraged the Sweden-Estonia Cooperation Fund to take the lead on it, noting that this physical meeting place could promote cooperation of “all kinds” and serve as “a place for everything, from seminars and workshops to business negotiations and cultural events.”
The authors also encouraged that different media channels contribute to improving Estonia’s image in Sweden and vice versa through positive examples such as Estonia’s digital services or Swedish creative industries such as games and music.
They also called on the two countries to promote cooperation and closer relations between politicians, including members of the Riigikogu and the Riksdag and members of parliament, as well as at the municipal level, in business, in the creative industries and in education, including at primary and secondary school as well as university levels.
Opportunities, weaknesses
The report also included the results of a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) regarding factors affecting current Estonian-Swedish relations.
A common history and similar cultures, strong work ethic, EU membership, well-educated populations, common geopolitical interests and strong economic ties were highlighted as strengths in the two countries’ current relations.
Recognized as weaknesses were people’s lack of knowledge about the other country, the lack of a Nordic-Baltic identity, cooperation sometimes rooted in nostalgia rather than being future-oriented, a language barrier, especially among the elderly, knowledge of other regions outside major metropolitan areas, and differences in corporate culture and Union.
Opportunities listed in the SWOT analysis included political support for closer ties, the Sweden-Estonia Cooperation Fund, a mutual scholarship fund for university students, and sports, e-sports and culture as areas of potential.
The cited threats, meanwhile, included that cooperation is often “rather ad hoc”, short-term funding of joint projects, the limited number of joint institutions, growing nationalism and protectionism, cooperation based on aid rather than a win-win strategy, as well as Sweden’s ” “big brother” approach to Estonia.
Invitation to Estonia-Latvia-Sweden-Finland conference
In the report, Eamets and Nuder call for a series of conferences to be organized by the Estonian and Swedish governments on the four policy areas prioritized in the report, as well as the importance of regional cooperation.
Similar reports on Estonian-Latvian and Estonian-Finnish cooperation were also published this year, and the authors of the report recommend the organization of a joint conference for Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and Finland next autumn with a focus on the joint activities proposed in all three reports.
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