The Increase of competition in Baltic cooperation: 1995-2005
ENThe article analyzes the positions of Latvia’s and Estonia’s politicians and researchers on the necessity to carry out a closer foreign policy cooperation amongst the Baltic countries – before their joining of the European Union, as well as shortly after their joining of the Union and to identify the reasons why so much critical ideas appeared. There are two possible assumptions at the beginning of the article that are answered in the course of the paper: 1) the criticism of the Baltic direction does not mean Estonia’s strong departure from the cooperation between the Baltic states, 2) “Estonia as a Nordic country” – a smart tactical step to facilitate Estonia’s faster accession to the European Union. It is concluded that potential belonging to the Nordic countries does not exclude the Baltic identity, so the notions of Nordic and Baltic states are not completely incompatible concepts. Key words: Baltic states, Latvia, Estonia, Nordic countries, cooperation, competition.
