Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Legislation, Technology

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Straujuma informed participants of the NB8 that Latvia will focus on three priorities during its presidency – facilitation of EU competitiveness and growth, full utilization of the digital potential in regard to EU growth, and consolidation of the EU image on the international scene.

"This period will be full of challenges for Latvia – we will start 2015 with a new government, new parliament, new European Commission, and a new European Parliament. This will be Latvia's first presidency of the EU Council, and we will treat it with the highest sense of responsibility," Straujuma said, adding that Latvia will focus on employment, economic growth, and reduction of unemployment among the youth.

Estonian Minister of Foreign Trade and Entrepreneurship Anne Sulling introduced the discussion on the subject of digital economy at the Nordic-Baltic (NB8) Summit in Stockholm Monday evening, government communication unit reports.

Estonia is of the opinion that the Nordic and Baltic region should decisively move forward with the creation of a digital single market by taking a leading role in this field throughout the European Union.

“We could act faster in the region than the rest of Europe,” Minister Sulling said.

She gave an example of the positive experience of Estonia in using digital signatures in inter-agency data exchange and this could be implemented on a cross-border basis. “The aim of the cross-border digital solutions, such as digital signatures and data exchange, is to make communication easier and more efficient for all people and companies. It also has a direct economic impact.”

Minister Sulling noted that digital signing option is already available between Finland and Estonia and soon it will also be implemented between Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

“We could set an ambitious goal to make the use of digital signatures possible between all Baltic and Nordic countries already in the near future,” Sulling said.

From Estonia’s point of view, the next major step in the digital integration of the region should be the launch of data exchange between countries by means of a technical solution called the cross-border X-path, which would connect various national data exchange platforms.

“This could be the basis for secure data exchange between our countries, while implementing, on a cross-border basis, the principle of asking data in a single query, which is already followed in Estonia,” Anne Sulling said. “The governments of Finland and Estonia have already started negotiations over the creation of a joint consortium to administrate and develop the joint X-path and other e-services.”

Foreign Trade and Entrepreneurship Anne Sulling said that since the economic integration in the Baltic and Nordic countries is extremely tight, it creates good conditions for the digital integration.

The NB8 or the meeting of the heads of government from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania also covered the topics of the economic situation in Europe, security situation in the region, and transatlantic relations.

Sulling stressed the need to achieve an ambitious free trade agreement with the United States. “Easier and wider access to the US market would contribute to the improvement of opportunities for growth and the creation of jobs in the European Union.”

At the NB8 meeting, Minister of Foreign Trade and Entrepreneurship Anne Sulling substituted Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, who remained in Estonia due to his official duties.