Scotland after Brexit – Event Details
How should a small nation like Scotland engage with Europe — the Nordic countries have experienced every conceivable variant on the theme. Denmark (since 1973), Sweden and Finland (since 1995) are all members of the EU. Iceland and Norway are not EU members but belong to the EEA – the European Economic Area that underpins the EU. Denmark’s devolved governments in the Faroes and Greenland are neither members of the EU nor EEA and only Finland has joined both the EU and the Euro zone. Travel is made easier by the fact that all Nordic nations – whether EU members or not – are part of the Schengen free travel zone. Currencies change at every border yet trade for most Nordic nations is with one another.
Inevitably though this is not the whole story. Behind the national picture, attitudes to Europe and the EU in the Nordic region are as complex as anywhere else in Europe, fractured by differences between political parties, economic sectors and social groups and between town and country, core and periphery. Maybe there is something for Scotland to learn.
Speakers:
Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson – ex leader of Iceland’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and former Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs responsible for Iceland’s EEA negotiations in the 1990’s
Professor Mary Hilson – historian in the Department of Culture and Society at Aarhus University, Denmark
Tuomas Iso-Markku – Research Fellow, (The) Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Ulrik Pram Gad – Associate Professor of Arctic Culture and Politics at University of Aalborg, Denmark
Dr. Duncan Halley – Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
Bjort Samuelsen – Republican MP in the Faroese Parliament, Member of the West Nordic Council and former Minister for Trade and Industry, Infrastructure and Gender Equality
Chaired by Lesley Riddoch.
Scotland after Brexit – Digital Notes
The meeting’s objective was bold – to explore ‘Scotland after Brexit’ with 6 noted Nordic speakers. It was a packed meeting in terms of audience, content and interaction. There was a considerable amount of material to curate. Here you should find a complete record of the afternoon with additional interviews as a bonus.
You will be pleased to know that a number of our guests from the event also popped up in the Scottish media.
On Saturday, Bjort Samuelson MP and Tuomas Iso-Markku were interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland ( starts 17’09” ends 26’04” ) . The link is here.
On Monday night, Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson appeared on STV’s Scotland Tonight (starts 10’11” – ends 15’44”). The link is here.
And Lesley Riddoch wrote in the Scotsman on Monday too. The link is here.
Please note some of these links will expire after a short period.
If you are unable to attend but would like to watch proceedings then check out this DemocracyTV Lifestream link – you can watch here.
Presentation
You can download Dr Duncan Halley’s presentation here.
You can download Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson’s presentation here.
You can download Tuomas Iso-Markka’s presentation here.
You can download Mary Hilson’s presentation here.
Vimeo Video Resources
It was an amazing afternoon of presentations, insights and discussion at the ‘Scotland after Brexit – Lessons from the Nordics’ event. Courtesy of DemocracyTV, we have a recording of the whole live stream in 4 parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
You can watch individual interviews with each of our speakers here.
Soundcloud Podcasts
The audio for all the presentations is available as 9 separate streams.