NEWS ANALYSIS: Prime Minister Cameron's search for the Northern Dimension

British-Baltic-Nordic meeting sparks conspiracy theories

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By Anssi Miettinen
     
      A new kind of summit meeting took place at the Whitechapel Art Museum in the east end of London on Thursday.
      The prime ministers of Britain, the Nordic Countries, and the Baltic Countries sat side-by-side discussing “soft” topics: family policy, green economics, and examples of technical innovations.
      The meeting was convened by Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.
      In addition to their prime ministers, each country had brought over a dozen experts, entrepreneurs, and people of influence to share ideas. The prime ministers themselves sat and listened for most of the time.
     
Finland showed how patents left over from Nokia had been recycled as seeds for new companies to nurture.
      Estonia marketed its progressive use of electronics in administration, which has even been used for casting ballots in elections.
      There was much talk about a Nordic model, which has made it possible for more women than before to go to work.
     
This new nine-country meeting has raised questions, and has even sparked some conspiracy theories.
      The Russian newspaper Pravda reached the bizarre conclusion that the British were planning to establish a “mini NATO” in the north of Europe.
      The prime ministers sharply denied suggestions that the aim would have been to create a northern bloc of like-minded countries similar to the France-Germany axis, for instance.
      Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi (Centre) felt that the agenda showed that the meeting was not about the creation of an EU alliance.
      “For myself, I felt that Cameron is fulfilling election promises and is learning from the Nordic model”, Kiviniemi said after the meeting.
     
Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) did not attend the meeting, but he gave some advance comments in an interview with the Financial Times.
      “He (Cameron) is looking for allies in the EU. Small member states are always flattered when approached by big member states”, Stubb said to the FT.
      Kiviniemi disagrees on the issue of seeking EU allies.
      “Perhaps the fact that I am here and Stubb is not says something”, Kiviniemi said.
     
Stubb’s comments did raise some questions at the meeting.
      However, the Foreign Minister is not necessarily wrong about this.
      Even if the British government were not trying to create a Northern Dimension on its own, it is certainly looking for new friends whom it needs in future EU tribulations.
      If Cameron were looking for Nordic input alone, why would he have invited Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania?
      Still, we have to believe that the ultimate purpose of the meeting really was to exchange ideas.
     
Although Cameron has become known primarily as someone who enthusiastically slashes public spending, he has also been looking closely at the Nordic region for a long time.
      The British government has used the Swedish model in its education policy. Cameron has also praised Finnish teacher training.
      It is quite natural for a prime minister aiming at reform to be interested in countries that constantly get top marks in various comparisons measuring well-being.
     
The idea of the meeting was quite worthy of support.
      Britain, the Nordic Countries, and the Baltic Countries are simultaneously sufficiently similar and sufficiently different.
      In Finland, people do not excessively follow what other countries are better at doing.
      Britain also has exports in social policy: in recent years ideas of social entrepreneurship have been planted in Finland.
     
The prime ministers seem to have genuinely liked the softer northern dimension. There was already talk about a subsequent meeting. The Finnish Prime Minister even got slightly ahead of herself.
      “The Kiviniemi II government would be happy to take part in something like this.”
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.1.2011
     
     
The writer is the London correspondent for Helsingin Sanomat


Previously in HS International Edition:
  British PM calls together leaders of Northern Europe (20.1.2011)

ANSSI MIETTINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
anssi.miettinen@hs.fi