Prime ministers meet in Oslo

At the meeting of the Nordic and Baltic prime ministers on Oct. 28 in Oslo, regional cooperation, the economic situation in Europe, and its competitiveness were discussed, reports LETA. It was observed that the Nordic countries and the Baltic region have remained a dynamically developing region.

According to Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, Europe has to continue implementing structural reforms and achieving better budget levels in order to regain stability and reliability. In his view, the development of digital services in the European internal market contributed to the economic recovery.

The Nordic and Baltic region is a dynamically developing region according to the prime minister, where the states’ economies have been kept in order and where things are thus going better than in the European Union as a whole.

“This is a region where the states’ financial situation has been well maintained – the general government debt is low and the government sector deficit is under control. Also, our banks are strong,” said Ansip, adding that cooperation in the region has significantly contributed to this.

The prime minister emphasized the importance of cooperation also for the reason that the economies of the north Baltic region are strongly integrated. “Larger investments have come to Estonia directly from Scandinavia; for example, the share of the Nordic countries in the total amount of foreign investment is two-thirds,” Ansip said. “Therefore, the format of our meetings functions well for us.” In his view, it is useful to coordinate the actions, both between the states and internationally.

“For us, the north Baltic states are a good club to belong to,” Ansip said.

The Eastern Partnership Summit, which takes place in Vilnius at the end of November, was also discussed at the meeting. According to Prime Minister Ansip, the continuing movement of the Eastern partners on a European course has to be supported.

The concrete results expected from the Eastern Partnership Summit are the signing of the Association and Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine and the initialization with Georgia and Moldova.