At the meeting of the speakers of the parliaments of the Nordic Countries and the Baltic States (NB8) in Lillehammer, President of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Eiki Nestor called on his colleagues to cooperate more in fighting against cyber crime and communicating with the Eastern partners.

According to Nestor, cyber crime does not know state borders and therefore often hits more than one country at a time. “Functioning and reliable international cooperation is therefore of key importance in the fight against cyber crime,” Nestor said.

The President of the Riigikogu added that, since 2007, Estonia had continuously invested in ensuring cyber security. “We are aware that the enemy is usually one step ahead, and this is why it is necessary to act collectively if we want to solve the security problems of the digital world,” he said.

Nestor said that he appreciated the participation of the Nordic Countries and the Baltic States in the work of NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, and called on Denmark, Norway and Iceland to join the centre. “We are happy that we had the possibility to hoist the flag of Sweden in front of the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn. I invite also Denmark, Norway and Iceland to closer cooperation,” Nestor said.

Speaking of Eastern Partnership, Nestor said that ensuring of stability at our eastern partners was causing concern in the whole Europe. “We have to inform people in that region more clearly and purposefully of the activities of the European Union. We also have to explain how our activities could be beneficial to our partners,” Nestor said. In his opinion, an informed citizen makes informed decisions and reasonable choices.

The Nordic-Baltic cooperation, or NB8, has been bringing the five Nordic and the three Baltic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) around the same table since 1992. The first meeting of the NB8 speakers took place in 1997 in Karlskrona, Sweden.

The purpose of the regular meetings of the speakers of the Nordic and Baltic parliaments is informal discussion of the current regional and international topics.

Photos of the NB8 meeting

Riigikogu Press Service
Eva Vahur
+372 631 6592, +372 53 300 619
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