In his speech, Secretary General Høybråten emphasised that digitalisation is a new rising star in Nordic cooperation and collaborating with Estonia and the other Baltic States in this area is also very important. The active cooperation at the level of Nordic-Baltic governments in the digital sphere is a specific example of this. However, the second and the most tangible example is the plan to introduce joint eID in the Nordic-Baltic region, which is currently in development. According to Høybråten, a joint eID would facilitate cross-border access to various system and this an area where the others have a lot to learn from the experience of Estonia. However, mutual trust between the countries must be the foundation of the joint eID – without this, opening access to systems would be impossible.
Secretary General Høybråten then had a meeting with the President of the Republic of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid at Vaba Lava, Narva. This time, they discussed the issues related to digitalisation and joint cooperation projects between Estonia and the Nordic countries. Secretary General Høybråten and President Kaljulaid also met last year, in April.
At the conference “Digital Youth 2018. Future is Now”, young people from Estonia and the Nordic countries discussed the problem they see in today’s and future digital world and their possible solutions to these problems. The conference was held on the joint initiative of the Estonian Office of the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Narva College of the University of Tartu and in cooperation with the Estonian Youth Work Centre and the Finnish Institute.