UK hosts rare northern Europe summit
Europe’s northern states should form an ‘avant garde’ for jobs and growth, David Cameron hopes.
The prime minister is hosting a summit of Nordic and Baltic states in central London today in a bid to boost trade and investment.
The meeting is being deliberately flagged as an ‘informal’ summit, with entrepreneurs, social activists and ‘thinkers’ invited in what the prime minister hopes will be a “free exchange of ideas”.
“As well as opening up the flow of ideas, this event is about opening up the flow of trade and investment between all our countries,” Mr Cameron said.
“For the UK’s part, we start from a strong position – already trade between the UK, Nordic and Baltic countries is almost the same as it is with China. And the opportunity is there for us to go much further – and we are determined to seize it.”
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all participating in the summit.
Mr Cameron said Britain had much to learn from Baltic and Nordic countries, especially in the areas of high-tech innovation, environmentally friendly economic growth and “how we can improve people’s wellbeing”.
Last night the prime ministers of the participating countries attended a dinner in Downing Street, but are set to “roll up our sleeves” and engage in debate with those attending.
“Success will be measured not by the length of a communique, not by the number of big pronouncements we can make this summit, but by how much we can learn from each other, and how together we can build better and more prosperous societies,” the prime minister added.
