Stockholm Network

Stockholm Network Logo from Facebook, circa 2010

The Stockholm Network is a working group of more than 120 market-oriented think tanks from across Europe created by Helen Disney, a journalist and Rick Nye the founder of polling company Populus. It calls itself "a one-stop shop for organisations seeking to work with Europe’s brightest policymakers and thinkers" and claims to have "the capacity to deliver local messages and locally-tailored global messages across the EU and beyond." The network churns out thousands of op-eds in the "high-quality European press", produces hundreds of publications and holds several conferences, seminars and meetings to "influence many millions of Europeans every year." Helen Disney, the Stockholm Network's founder and director, describes it as "not a think tank, as such, but a networking service for think tanks across Europe."

Writing in The Times in December 2005, Paul Staines wrote that the Stockholm Network "turns out to be in fact the public face of Market House International, a PR consultancy that tells corporate clients that the network gives it 'local capacity to deliver both local messages and locally tailored global messages in a wide range of countries'."

History

The Stockholm Network was founded in September 1997 by Helen Disney, a British journalist and policy specialist, and initially managed by the Swedish think tank, Timbro. Disney had landed a job with the pro market think tank the Social Market Foundation in 1996, a year after gaining an undergraduate degree at Bristol University in languages. It was while she was at the SMF that the Stockholm Network was created and launched. In early versions of the SN website the SMF is listed as one of four 'main groups' of the network along with Timbro (Sweden), Paradigmes (France) and The Centre for the New Europe (a pan-European think tank based in Brussels, Belgium).An alternative account on the Public Partners website describes how the network was "founded in collaboration" with six other institutes, these institutes include the four main groups from the SN website but add the Edmund Burke Foundation (Netherlands) and the Circulos de Empresarios (Spain).

1997 The Beginning of the Stockholm Network

Helen Disney gave the following account of the Stockholm Network's background in an edit to the SN Wikipedia entry:

The network of free-market European think tanks known as the Stockholm Network (SN) was founded in 1997 by Helen Disney, a former journalist and Deputy Director of the Social Market Foundation. It began with a small staff of 3 people including Nicole Gray Conchar who had previously worked as a fundraiser for numerous think tanks including the Cato Institute and the International Policy Network (IPN).

In the Stockholm Network's 2006-2007 annual report, Helen Disney gives an overview of the first 10 years of the Stockholm Network where she reflects:

In many ways, the challenges remain the same as they did ten years ago, how to maximise economic growth, how to reform and modernise welfare systems for the consumer age and how to create a knowledge economy. But new problems have also arisen including energy security, climate change, the tension between intellectual property and competition and, indeed, how large the European Union could and should become. The Stockholm Network's focus over the last 10 years has adapted to reflect and respond to these challenges. From an initial focus broadly on economic and welfare-state reform, we now have three core programs of activity, covering the original health and welfare area, but also new programs dedicated to intellectual property and competition, and energy and the environment.

Catherine Windels who previously worked for the Heritage Foundation and was part of the Reagan administration helped to found the Stockholm Network according to her profile on the Galen Institute website. Windels worked for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for 22 years during which time she 'helped create new think tanks and networks of think tanks in Europe, Canada, Africa and Asia, as well as working closely with many leading institutes in the US'. Paul Belien of the conservative Brussels Journal describes Windels as the 'godmother of think tanks', he describes how, in her role at Pfizer she was instrumental in setting up several think tank networks:

American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which has a philosophy of supporting young people with new initiatives through the good care of Catherine Windels.

The earliest references to Stockholm Network activity come in the form of a 1999 report by the Heritage Foundation. The report references three Stockholm Network conferences as footnotes, the conferences are as follows:

• Kurt Wickman, "Is Harmonization of Tax Policies Between EU Countries a Good Idea," Stockholm Network Conference, March 1999.
• David Smith, "Will Tax Harmonization Harm Job Creation," A European Harmony, Stockholm Network Conference, May 8, 1999.
• John Burton, "Going Underground," Stockholm Network Conference, December 1999.

The Network's first paper, Millennium Doom: Fallacies about the end of work was published by the Social Market Foundation in February 1999.

2001-2003 Stockholm Network based at Civitas

From 2001 the network became part of Civitas, which was formerly known as the Health and Welfare Unit of the Institute for Economic Affairs. The original Stockholm Network website was redesigned in 2002 and its contact address was marked as “c/o Civitas”. SN Director Helen Disney had a dual role between 2001 and 2003, she was the co-ordinator of the network which was based at Civitas, and she was also the director of European relations for Civitas. The network left Civitas sometime between 10-October-2003 and the 12-December-2003. SN had been based at Civitas offices at The Mezzanine, Elizabeth House, 39 York Rd, London SE1 7NQ, they moved to a new office at 35 Britannia Row, London N1 8QH, the first online record of them operating from Britannia row is from the 02-February-2004.

While part of Civitas, in April 2002, the network listed its "current participants" which comprised of the aforementioned main groups Centre for the New Europe, Timbro, Paradigmes, and Civitas. These main groups supplied the patrons and directors of the Stockholm Network.

2003-2006 Stockholm Network becomes independent and creates Market House International, The Institute of Economic Affairs Leave the network

In late 2003 Helen Disney and Rick Nye, who worked together at the Social Market Foundation, created the private company Market House International, a Public Relations (PR) consultancy, in order to run the Stockholm Network. Corporate Europe Observatory argue that this move was the beginning of the network being managed independently. The Institute of Economic Affairs left the Stockholm Network in 2005 because "as an educational charity we felt it was inappropriate to be a member of an organisation whose mission we could not control". Paul Staines criticised Market House International in his December 2005 article in The Times, You Want Policy, In Cash?. Two months later the private company Market House International was renamed as the Stockholm Network.

2008-2009 Think tanks leave, join and are expelled

In 2008 the International Policy Network reportedly left the Stockholm Network. It was followed by the Liberalni Institute leaving in January 2009 and the Centre for European Reform sometime after this. According to an article in the Telegraph, the withdrawals came after the Stockholm Network called for the taxing of search engines to compensate copyright holders whose work can be accessed, without charge, as a result of internet searches. It had also called for greater recognition of 'the importance of wealth transfer' to poor countries in order to fight climate change. In 2009, the Stockholm Network report, The UK Pharmaceutical Industry: Current Challenges and Future Solutions, called for Government funding of the pharmaceutical industry.

According to the report on the pharmaceutical industry, written by Ross Carroll and Stuart Carroll, ‘[A] lack of government investment is another factor adversely affecting the UK pharmaceutical industry.’ The report, which was a part of the ‘Stockholm Network Experts’ Series’, also called a reduction in the rate of UK corporation tax; tax credits for new product introduction and technological development; and the simplification of ‘taxation rules and reduce the burden of complex legislation and regulation through the utilisation of cutting-edge approaches.’

The publication was reportedly criticised by other free-market think tanks. According to emails seen by the Telegraph, the head of one said: “The whole thing is mad. I cannot imagine any free market think tank now being able to stay in membership [of the Stockholm Network].” Another claimed:

"As far as I can see this is the end of the Stockholm Network as a network for European free market think tanks. It might however be the opening attempt at some sort of consultancy… Whatever, the whole thing is totally —— up: big time."

The Stockholm Network's owner, Helen Disney contacted the Telegraph criticising the article and arguing that:

The report is far from being in favour of state intervention. In fact, the authors argue for reducing corporation tax, simplifying tax rules and reducing legislation and regulation. The reference to industrial policy concerns ideas for making the UK economy more competitive in global markets.

The Liberalni Institute left the Stockholm Network on the 29th January 2009, shortly after the publication of the report on the UK pharmaceutical industry. They cited their reason for leaving as:

The Academic Advisory Board of the Liberalni institut decided to leave the Stockholm Network on January 29. It is because some recent publications of the SN are not consistent with our deep convictions about the importance of individual freedom and the rule of law. The LI is strongly opposed to the promotion of particular interests of business couched under the heading of liberalism.

The Adam Smith Institute, Libertarian Alliance and Nurses for Reform also left the network in 2009, although according to edits made to Wikipedia by Helen Disney the Libertarian Alliance and Nurses for Reform had their "membership withdrawn", Helen Disney withdrew membership from the two organisations because 'I felt we no longer had a shared vision of what the Stockholm Network was trying to achieve'.

Other members who were formerly listed as members of the network but are no longer listed on the SN website include the Globalisation Institute, Project Empowerment, Policy Institute, International Policy Network, David Hume Institute and the Hayek Society.

2010 Healthcare Lobbying

In November 2010 UK health secretary Andrew Lansley announced that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) would be stripped of its power to halt the purchase of drugs not considered cost effective for the NHS. He argued that the new system would be one where the 'price of a drug will be determined by its assessed value'. The Stockholm Network agreed with the proposed change to NICE’s remit. In a press release its chief executive, Helen Disney, argued that the move showed that, 'even at a time of austerity, the British public does not want or accept rationed healthcare'.

The SN had previously criticised NICE in 2007 arguing that:

A decision to prioritise a less therapeutically effective medicine because of cost-based considerations over an effective, but more expensive, medicine could lead to some serious political, social and moral dilemmas.

The SN were criticised in the British Medical Journal over how their close links with both the Conservative Party and pharmaceutical industry 'raise serious questions about its ability to produce independent policy advice'.

Responding to the criticism, Helen Disney argued that:

I entirely agree that funding sources for research carried out by policy-making organisations such as think tanks ought to be transparent wherever possible. We are funded by memberships and research grants from a range of companies, foundations and individuals. Not only do we not hide this, but we list all sponsors on our website and in our annual reports.

However this claim to transparency was refuted because it was argued that:

Disney does not publicly disclose how much money her company gets from Pfizer, GSK or Merck or the rest of the corporate interests that bankroll her operation. This raises questions over how closely the research produced by the Stockholm Network correlates to the commercial interests of its sponsors. One sponsor, Pfizer, spent $21.9 million on lobbying in the United States last year. The links between Pfizer and the Stockholm Network raise legitimate concerns about lobbying activity, including the involvement of a Pfizer executive in helping set up the think tank in the first place. We argue that until the Network makes public the amounts from each sponsor it will find allegations of lobbying difficult to refute, and remain unable to claim they have 'openly declared' funding.

Stockholm Network Programmes

The Network is described as a forum for "sharing, exchanging and developing pan-European research and best practice." The Network states that it has three programmes of work as follows:

• Energy and Environment programme
• Intellectual Property and Competition programme
• Health and Welfare programme

In order to promote ideas to stimulate economic growth, the Stockholm Network concentrates on a familiar litany of free market policy measures and ideas: 'Reforming European welfare states' and 'creating a more flexible labour market'; 'Ensuring more consumer-driven healthcare','Encouraging an informed debate on intellectual property rights'; 'Reforming European energy markets to ensure the most beneficial balance between economic growth and environmental quality'; 'Emphasising the benefits of globalisation, trade and competition and creating an understanding of free market ideas and institutions.'

Piechart showing the relative prominence of SN’s Research Areas from 2004 to 2009.

Chart showing the relative prominence of SN’s Research Areas year on year between 2004 and 2009.

Energy and Environment programme

The SN Energy and Environment Programme was established in 2005 to promote a ‘practical market-oriented approach to meeting our future energy challenges while also addressing environmental and climate change concerns.’

Climate Change

In the same year, SN commissioned a Populus poll and produced a report which made for ‘uncomfortable reading for campaigners’. Authors Helen Disney and Dan Lewis concluded: ‘Britons don't believe the environment should be at the top of the priority list of policy-makers, but they don't want it to be just an add-on extra either.’ The Heritage Foundation used the SN’s findings in its own analysis on climate change claiming ‘…69 percent of British people see businesses as the most effective agents in combating threats to the environment, and 74 percent agreed that technological innovation, rather than government intervention, is the best way of dealing with future environmental challenges.’ In 2008, the SN published Carbon Scenarios describing three ‘different possible futures that result from the differentiated substance and implementation of possible climate policies’. One of the paper’s contributors, Mark Lynas, explained one potential scenario in the Guardian:

’Instead of all the complexity of regulating squabbling nations and billions of people, the price mechanism does the work: companies simply pass on their increased costs to consumers, and demand for carbon intensive products begins to fall.’

Wondering ‘whether business as usual – on climate policy as much as economics – will condemn us all to climate oblivion’, Lynas neglected to mention that representatives from BP and Shell had also participated in the project. In a piece for the New Statesman, Lynas attacks climate sceptics for being affiliated with US-based conservative think tanks:

"’Many climate-change sceptics like to think they are proudly independent people, refusing to be cowed by UN-sponsored orthodoxy from the IPCC. In fact, the arguments of climate sceptics have largely been moulded by a far more sinister force - the US-based conservative think tanks. A recent academic survey of environmentally sceptical books found that 92 per cent were linked with these think tanks, which include the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Since the early 1990s, these and other industry-funded front groups have been leading an anti-environmental backlash, changing the tenor of the political debate on environmental issues and bombarding the media and the public with disinformation.’

Lynas makes no reference to the Stockholm Network’s own connections to the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute and the funding it receives from industry giants such as Exxon Mobil (see sections on History, Funding and US Connections).

Intellectual Property and Competition programme

The SN Intellectual Property and Competition Programme was set up in January 2005 aiming to:

• ‘make the field of intellectual property more mainstream and accessible to the general public’
• ‘increase the interaction between specialists focusing on different aspects of intellectual property rights’
• ‘encourage discussion, as well as debates, on different burning IP issues’
• ‘promote European competitiveness’

Critics claim the programme is ‘inconsistent with their radical free-market ideology’ as it ‘pursues far-reaching corporate patent protection rather than free markets.’ But the SN’s Meir Pugatch insists ‘evidence shows definitively that patent protection promotes innovation.’ Pugatch reiterated this message at the Debating Pharmaceutical IPRs meeting in February 2007, which was co-sponsored by the UN Conference on Trade and Development and co-chaired by Helen Disney. He also stressed the ‘importance of public-private partnerships’ and claimed that ‘Patent protection is more important today than ever’ – before mentioning that the Stockholm Network is part funded by the pharmaceutical industry.

IPRs and Health: Pfizer and the Patent Debate

Along with financial support from Pfizer, the SN is also linked to the drugs giant through Pfizer Forum – ‘an advertorial program that was launched in The Economist in February, 1994, and now appears in leading policy and business publications worldwide.’ Helen Disney has worked for the forum and Meir Pugatch, SN’s Director of Research & Head of the Intellectual Property (IP) and Competition Programme and IP consultant for Timbro, has been its chair since 2003. Pugatch was also responsible for establishing and chairing the Israeli Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Think-Tank', consisting of representatives from the Government and the pharmaceutical industry (including Pfizer). Other authors who have written for Pfizer Forum include SN members from the International Policy Network, the Adam Smith Institute, Centre for the New Europe, Civitas and Timbro. Catherine Windels, who used to work for Pfizer and The Heritage Foundation, formerly served on the board patrons of the SN which she helped found.

Pfizer was opposed to proposals to change the USA's legal structure for patents through the Patent Reform Act 2007, claiming it ‘weakened patent rights’ and reduced damages to be paid out for patent infringement. Patent law changes were considered to be a victory for software firms’and a ‘defeat for research based drugmakers.’ . The SN entered the debate, comparing the American model to the European Union's patent system which it described as ‘circular and ineffective at best’. The network ‘unusually, refusing[ed] to take sides,’ presumably in an effort to balance the competing interests of ‘various knowledge-based industry giants’ such as Microsoft and Pfizer, who both offered financial support to the SN in that year..

Health and Welfare programme

The Stockholm Network's Health and Welfare Programme was set up at the end of 2005. Key aims and objectives include:

• Providing a comprehensive resource on European think tank initiatives in the field of Health and Welfare
• Promoting competition and choice in healthcare, through reform of European health systems and markets
• Promoting more flexible labour markets in Europe
• Promoting market oriented reform of Europe's failing pensions systems

Prior to the establishment of the programme, Helen Disney and other ‘leading experts' – mostly members of other think tanks in the SN – had already spelled out the Malthusian ‘reality’ of European healthcare systems after analysing data from a SN and Populus commissioned study. Representatives from Timbro; the Italian free-market think tank; Istituto Bruno Leoni; the French economic think tank, Molinari Economic Institute; and the Hague-based think tank, Edmund Burke Foundation, were among the ‘experts’ who concluded ‘Europe’s health systems are no longer sustainable and will have to be overhauled.’ An additional Populus poll and publication, which saw Disney collaborating with representatives from the Health Policy Institute and the Institute for Free Society among others, concluded that health consumers would travel abroad to get treatments denied in their home countries and argued for an integrated health service market. Unsurprisingly, the SN welcomed the European Commission’s ensuing draft directive on patient mobility.

Debates

The Science-Democracy Debate

In 2005, the Stockholm Network co-sponsored the ‘Westminster Fringe Debate’ with the motion “Democratisation of science would not be in the public interest”. According to the organisers:

“Science is driven by curiosity. Would any attempt to put that under greater public scrutiny deaden scientific inquiry or must scientists now come to terms with the fears and priorities of society at large? And is public accountability a meaningful concept in science? Scientists may not know what they are going to discover when they start experimenting or to what use it may ultimately be put. Are the public qualified to determine the priorities of scientific research? Is that untrammelled freedom for science out of date and dangerous?”

Lord Dick Taverne from Sense About Science and Colin Blakemore, who was Chief Executive of the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) at the time, supported the motion which was carried.

US Connections

The Stockholm Network is listed on the website for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (AERF) , an American organisation based near Washington that “serves as a catalyst and connector to link free-market organizations and individuals to the ideas, people and resources they need to promote a free society.” The AERF, which has received $680,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998 (see Atlas Economic Research Foundation), has created an 'international network of free-market public policy institutes' and compiles a directory of its affiliates. Other listed think tanks that are part of the AERF's 'freedom network' and the Stockholm Network include Instituto Acton; the Adam Smith Institute; Instituto Bruno Leoni; Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies; Centre for Liberal Strategies; Centre for the New Europe; Centre for Research into Post-Communist Economies; Civita; CIVITAS; European Ideas Network; International Policy Network; Libertarian Alliance; Policy Exchange; and Timbro. The American Enterprise Institute; the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute are amongst the US-based 'freedom network' members.

One of the Stockholm Network's first employees, Nicole Gray Conchar, had previously worked for the Cato Institute, and from 2007 to 2008, the institute was one of the SN’s funders. Catherine Windels, who used to work for Pfizer and The Heritage Foundation, formerly served on the board patrons of the SN which she helped found. The foundation was also one of the SN’s funders from 2005 to 2006..

Funding

The Stockholm Network has published a list of corporations who have made contributions to the network in its annual report for the three years between 2005-2008.. As of June 2010 the latest annual report on the SN website is for 2007-2008. Although the Stockholm Network don't allow any figures to be made public on the importance of each contributor a look at the interests of the network's larger supporters bears a close resemblance to the research agenda of the network.

Funding the Health and Welfare Programme

The Stockholm Network is funded by Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, PhRMA and Merck who are all pharmaceutical companies with business interests in the area of health and welfare. The network has also received funding from the Centre for the New Europe who helped set the network up and reportedly receive 50 per cent of their funding from Pfizer. Pfizer's Senior Director for Policy Stakeholder Relations, Catherine Windels, also helped to set up the network - part of her role at Pfizer for 22 years was to set up think tanks, earning her the nickname 'the godmother of all think tanks'. Pfizer is one of the biggest and most influential lobbyists on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.

In 2006, with Pfizer as one its funders and the drug company raking in £8 billion in annual sales for its cholesterol drug Lipitor, the best-selling drug in the world for the fifth year in a row at the time, the SN published Cholesterol: The Public Policy Implications of Not Doing Enough. Authors Tony Hockley from the Policy Analysis Centre (who has also completed health reports for Policy Exchange and Civitas), Stephen Pollard from the Centre for the New Europe, and Mike Sedgley concluded there is 'evidence of wide-scale under-prescribing and suboptimal dosing of effective lipid-lowering agents in Europe’ and promoted 'greater use of strong statins or the addition of cholesterol absorption inhibitors to statins’ to avoid a health and welfare crisis in Europe. The SN subsequently launched an awareness campaign on health risks linked to high cholesterol, while Helen Disney criticised the European Parliament’s (EP) proposal for ‘action on cardiovascular disease’ for not recognising the link between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease and accepting that ‘new treatment strategies, including combined treatment, are necessary.’

Funding the Energy and Environment Programme

The earliest record of Stockholm Network is in a 1999 report by the Heritage Foundation. As well as working for Pfizer, Catherine Windels worked for the Heritage Foundation who, in 2007, cited a Stockholm Network report to argue that ‘…69 percent of British people see businesses as the most effective agents in combating threats to the environment, and 74 percent agreed that technological innovation, rather than government intervention, is the best way of dealing with future environmental challenges.’ The theme of arguing against government intervention on climate change is consistent with the networks position in 2004, the Stockholm Network director of Environmental affairs Dan Lewis argues that climate change is 'a problem, not a looming catastrophe' and that he has 'more faith in off-the-shelf, lower-cost technology, from companies like Toyota now building electric hybrid cars such as the Prius - achieved without any government subsidy'. In another letter to the Times, Lewis argues that:

We have to get away from the idea that our environmental problems can be solved only through the complicated emissions trading schemes of the Kyoto Protocol (letters, December 13). It is time to acknowledge the treaty's greatest success -a massive public relations boost for the renewable energy and nuclear industries lobbies -and write it off.

As well as arguing that tackling climate change should be left to corporations and not governments a report by Helen Disney and Dan Lewis concluded that:

Britons think protecting the environment is important - but is it as important to them as mortgage rates, crime and policing, health and education? The answer is a resounding 'no'. Britons don't believe the environment should be at the top of the priority list of policy-makers, but they don't want it to be just an add-on extra either.

The data behind these arguments was produced by polling firm Populus, who have close links with the Stockholm Network through Rick Nye and the Social Market Foundation.

In every year that the Stockholm Network have published a list of donors, they have received money from Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil fund lobby groups who publish 'misleading and inaccurate information' about climate change. Other groups funding the Stockholm Network include the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation. The Cato Institute receives funding from Koch Industries who alongside Exxon Mobil are one of the most powerful corporate lobbyists against climate change, the Heritage Foundation receives funding from both Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries.

Transparency over funding

According to its website, the Stockholm Network receives funding from a variety of individuals, corporations, trade associations and foundations:

’A mixture of for-profit and not-for-profit organisations, some SN supporters are large global enterprises, while others are small or medium in size. Subscriptions from individuals, commercial enterprises, and a range of NGOs make up the bulk of our funding. We also derive a small income from the sale of our publications and research materials to the public, bookshops, government agencies and private companies. Corporate subscribers come from a wide range of sectors that currently include information technology, energy, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, entertainment, public affairs, and insurers.’

Funders, however, ‘do not have a veto over the outcome of Stockholm Network research or any influence over its media output.’ The network maintains that it does not accept payments intended to ‘purchase’ prearranged research outcomes. It also insists it is not a ‘front group’ for other organisations or individuals and that contributors are listed in full on its annual report and website.

The Corporate Europe Observatory give the following description of an e-mail exchange with Helen Disney regarding the funding of the Stockholm Network:

The Stockholm Network is funded, Disney explained, "by annual subscriptions from private individuals, companies and foundations, including think tanks". When we responded asking for a list of funders and how much they contribute, Disney told us that the Stockholm Network has "around 25 major funders across a variety of sectors including public affairs firms, venture capitalists, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, trade associations, software companies and the energy sector." Still no names and no figures, although Disney did add that sponsors "do not have a veto over any research we conduct and may not commission research from the Network". When we insisted once more on names and figures, the response was that "I cannot give you the information you ask for since our accounts for 2004 will not be completed for another month". We then suggested that Disney could send us the overview for 2003, to give us an idea, but also this proved to be impossible. Disney argued that until January 2004, the Stockholm Network was technically part of the think tank Civitas, "so did not have its own accounts." At this stage, Disney did inform us about the Stockholm Network's annual subscription charges of £1000, £5000 or £10,000 per year. "Larger corporate donors tend to join at the £10,000 level", she explained. The Stockholm Network clearly took the survey seriously and spent significant amount of time responding, but with a remarkable determination to avoid naming funders.

In an edit to the Stockholm Network's Wikipedia page owner Helen Disney added the following comments about funding and transparency:

The Stockholm Network has made efforts to be transparent regarding the sources of its funding, and has advocated that other think tanks should also list their funders on their websites. This would make accusations of potential conflicts of interest, or lobbying, which can be impossible to either corroborate or refute (given their often unattributed and/or unverified nature) less likely.

Prior to adding this comment about transparency Disney made repeated edits to remove material from Wikipedia about the Stockholm Network. Including resources that linked to critical articles in Spinwatch and Corporate Europe Observatory. Disney also tried to remove any mention of think tanks leaving the network.

Funding 2005-2006

In 2005-06 The Stockholm Network received contributions from the following individuals and organisations:

3M Security Systems Division | Akademika | Authentix | Bertrams Books | Bettina Bergbauer | Blackwell's Book Service | Centre for the New Europe | Centro di Documentazione | Dale Investment Advisors | Dawsons Books | DCI Group | Dietmar Dreier | Paul Newton - CCVTM | DTB Associates | Eli Lilly | Esia books | EU Bookshop | Exxon Mobil | Facultas Bookshop | Forensic Technology | FreedomWorks | Gardners Books | Gary Bogard | Geoff Dover | German Pharma Health Fund | Graeme Robertson | Heritage Foundation | Hill and Knowlton | IFPMA | J.Story-Scienti | Jim Rittenburg | Julian Morris | Karin A Schmidt | Lehmanns Fachbuchhandlung | LIF | Lovells Library | Luther Pendragon | Mariana Magalhaes | Mark Krueger & Associates | Merck & Co Inc |Missing Link Booksellers | Nancy Hansen | NAPP Pharmaceuticals | PA Consulting Group | Peter Pitts | Pfizer Inc | Pfizer Ltd | Pharmaceutical Marketing | Philip Sinopoli | Philips Electronics | PhRMA | RETI Roularta Media Group | Stationery Office Bookshop | Tesa AG | The Economist | The Tax Foundation | Tim Phillips | Tony Walsh | University of Texas at Austin | USPTO/International Relations | Verizon | Worldwide Book Supplies.

Funding 2006-2007

In 2006-07 The Stockholm Network received contributions from the following individuals and organisations:

Amazon EU | Beacon Books | Bertrams Books | BGN Distributie | Blackwell's Book Service UK | Blackwell's Business & Law Bookshop | Bookshop J Story Scientia | BUPA | Burson Marsteller | Civitas | Coronet Books Inc | Daunt Books | Dawson Books | DEA S.p.A. | The Economist | Eli Lilly | Elisa Kangaskoski | Erasmus Booksellers | EU Bookshop | EU Observer European Bookshop Ltd | Exxon Mobil | Fachbuchhandlung fur Sprachen | FSF Ltd - Public Finance Magazine | The Fund for American Studies | Gardners Books | General Healthcare Group | GlaxoSmithKline | GML Hannay Booksellers | Heffers Booksellers | Hill & Knowlton | Holt Jackson Book Co. | IFPMA Institute of Directors | IPN | KLIO Bookshop | Kueper International Booksellers | LCS Consulting Lehmann - Mulheim Marsh Inc | Massman International Booksellers | McDermott Will & Emery Merck | The Merck Foundation | Merck Sharp and Dohme | Microsoft | Motion Picture Association | Muenstergass-Buchhandlung | Nuffield Hospitals | OLFZI | Patrick Barbour | Pfizer Inc | Pfizer UK | PhRMA | Precise Public Affairs | Progress & Freedom Foundation | Schering Plough AB | Schweitzer Sortiment Wien | Starkmann Ltd | Strassner GmbH | TSO Bookshop | Uitgevrerij Peeters | UST Public Affairs | VeriSign Inc | Verizon.

Funding 2007-2008

In 2007-08 The Stockholm Network received contributions from the following individuals and organisations:

Adam Smith Institute | Amazon EU | Beacon Books | Bertrams Books | BGN Distributie | Blackwell's Book Service UK | Blackwell's Business & Law Bookshop | Bookshop J Story Scientia | BUPA | Burson Marsteller | The Business | Cato Institute | Civitas | Coronet Books Inc | Coutts Information Services | Daunt Books | Dawson Books | DEA S.p.A. | The Economist | Eli Lilly | Elisa Kangaskoski | Erasmus Booksellers | EU Bookshop | EU Observer European Bookshop Ltd | Exxon Mobil | Fachbuchhandlung fur Sprachen | FSF Ltd - Public Finance Magazine | The Fund for American Studies | Gardners Books | General Healthcare Group | Gilead Sciences Inc. | GlaxoSmithKline | GML | Hannay Booksellers | Heffers Booksellers | Hill & Knowlton | Holt Jackson Book Co. | IFPMA | Institute of Directors | KLIO Bookshop | Kueper International Booksellers | LCS Consulting | Lehmann - Mulheim Luther | Pendragon Marsh Inc | Massman International Booksellers | Max Consult Group | Merck | The Merck Foundation | Merck Sharp and Dohme | Microsoft | Motion Picture Association | Motion Picture Association of America | Muenstergass-Buchhandlung | Novartis International | AG | Nuffield Hospitals | OLFZI | Patrick Barbour | Pfizer Inc | Pfizer UK | PhRMA | Precise Public Affairs | Schering Plough AB | Schweitzer Sortiment Wien | The Spectator | Starkmann Ltd | Strassner GmbH | TSO Bookshop | Uitgevrerij Peeters | UST Public Affairs | Yankee Book Peddler Ltd. | Wall Street Journal Europe | VeriSign Inc.

Members

The British connection

The network was founded in London and Stockholm, though it is operated out of London and has a large contingent of UK members, however many of the UK members have left the network. Some of the British member organisations are listed as part of the British conservative movement, Movement Conservatism, including the Institute of Economic Affairs, Reform, the Adam Smith Institute, Policy Exchange, Civitas, International Policy Network.

Former British Members

Adam Smith Institute - member of the SN in the years 2006-7 and 2007-8 | Centre for European Reform, No Longer Members | David Hume Institute | Hayek Society | Institute of Economic Affairs, left in 2005 | International Policy Network | Libertarian Alliance | Nurses for Reform (Asked to leave the network in 2009) | Policy Institute (though its successor body Reform Scotland is a member)| Project Empowerment | Globalization Institute

Current British Members

Business for New Europe | Centre for Policy Studies | Centre for Research into Post-Communist Economies | Civitas | E.G. West Centre | Global Vision | Open Europe | Policy Exchange | Politeia | Reform | Reform Scotland | Social Affairs Unit | Centre for Social Justice

Full list of members

Adam Smith Institute, UK - member of the SN in the years 2006-7 and 2007-8 | Adam Smith Society, Italy | Adriatic Institute for Public Policy | Albanian Liberal Institute, Albania | Anders Chydenius Foundation, Finland | Association for Liberal Thinking, Turkey | Association for Modern Economy, Macedonia | Avenir Suisse, Switzerland | Bertil Ohlin Institute, Sweden | Bulgaria Society for Individual Liberty, Bulgaria | Causa Liberal, Portugal | Centre for Democracy and Free Enterprise, Czech Republic | Centre for Economic Development, Bulgaria | Centre for Economic Development, Slovakia | Centre for Economics and Politics, Czech Republic | Centre for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Montenegro | Centre for European Reform, UK | Centre for Institutional Analysis and Development | Centre for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria | Centre for Liberal-Democratic Studies, Serbia | Centre for Policy Studies, UK | Centre for Political Thought, Poland | Centre for Research into Post-Communist Economies, UK | Centre for Social and Economic Research, Poland | Centre for the New Europe | Centre for the Study of Democracy, Bulgaria | Centro Einaudi, Italy | Cercles Liberaux, France | CIDAS, Italy | Civic Institute, Czech Republic | Civita, Norway | CIVITAS, United Kingdom | Conservative Institute of M. R. Stefanik, Slovakia | Council on Public Policy, Germany | David Hume Institute, United Kingdom | E.G. West Centre, UK | Economic Policy Research Institute, Macedonia | Ekome, Greece | Eudoxa, Sweden | Euro 92 (think tank), France | European Ideas Network, Brussels | European Independent Institute, The Netherlands | EVA (think tank), Finland | F. A. v. Hayek Institute, Austria | Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Italy | Foundation for Market Economy, Hungary | Frédéric Bastiat Stichting, The Netherlands | Free Market Centre, Serbia | Freedom Institute, Ireland | Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, Germany | Friedrich von Hayek Gesellschaft, Germany | Fundacio Catalunya Oberta, Spain | Fundacion Internacional para la Libertad (FIL), Spain | Gdansk Institute for Market Economics, Poland | Hayek Foundation, Russia | Hayek Foundation, Slovakia | Hayek Society, Hungary | Hayek Society, LSE, London | Health Consumer Powerhouse, Belgium | Health Reform, Czech Republic | Hellenic Leadership Institute | IFRAP, France | Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies, Belarus | INEKO, Slovakia | Institut Constant de Rebecque, Switzerland | Institut Economique Molinari, Belgium | Institut Hayek, Belgium | Institut Karla Havlicka Borovskeho, Czech Republic | Institut Montaigne, France | Institut Turgot, France | Institute for Economic Studies Europe, Aix-en-Provence | Institute for Free Enterprise, Germany | Institute for Free Society, Slovakia | Institute for International Relations, Croatia | Institute for Market Economics (IME), Bulgaria | Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognosis, Montenegro | Institute for Transistional Democracy and International Security, Hungary | Institute of Economic Affairs, UK (According to a Telegraph blog by Alex Singleton, the IEA left the Stockholm Network prior to January 2009) | Institute of Economic Analysis, Russia | Institute of Economic Studies, Iceland | Institute of Economics (Ekonomski Institut), Croatia | Instituto Juan de Mariana, Spain | Instytut Liberalno-Konserwatywny, Poland | International Centre for Economic Research, Italy | International Council for Capital Formation, Brussels | International Policy Network, United Kingdom (According to a Telegraph blog by Alex Singleton, the IPN left the Stockholm Network prior to January 2009) | Istituto Acton, Italy | Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy | Jaan Tonisson Institut, Estonia | Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, Israel | Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Germany | Liberales Institut, Switzerland | Liberales, Belgium | Liberalni Institute, Czech Republic | Libertarian Alliance, United Kingdom | Libertas (think tank) | Liberty Ideas, Austria | Lithuanian Free Market Institute | Ludwig von Mises Institute Europe, Brussels | Ludwig von Mises Institute, Romania | M.E.S.A. 10, Slovakia | Magna Carta Foundation, Italy | New Economic School, Georgia | New Economics School, Russia | New Social Market Economy Foundation, Germany | Nova Civitas, Belgium | Nova Res Publica, Italy | Nurses for Reform, created in 2006. | Open Europe, United Kingdom | Open Republic Institute | Poder Limitado, Spain | Policy Exchange, United Kingdom | Policy Institute, United Kingdom | Politeia, United Kingdom | Project Empowerment, United Kingdom | Ratio Institute, Sweden | Reform, United Kingdom | Riinvest Institute for Development Research, Kosovo | Romania Think Tank | Romanian Centre for Economic Policies | Sauvegarde Retraites (Save the Pensions), France | Social Affairs Unit, London | Stiftung Marktwirtschaft, Germany | Taxpayers' Alliance | Telders Foundation, Netherlands | The Copenhagen Institute, Denmark | Globalization Institute, United Kingdom | Think Tank for International Governance Research, Austria | Thomas More Institute, Belgium | Timbro, Sweden | Ukrainian Centre for Independent Political Research | Venezie Institute, Italy | Walter Eucken Institut, Germany

People

Management

The Stockholm Network does not have a board and is owned and run by Helen Disney.

Staff Numbers

Year	Staff Numbers
1997-1998	3 Staff Members
1998-1999	? Staff Members
1999-2000	? Staff Members
2000-2001	? Staff Members
2001-2002	? Staff Members
2002-2003	? Staff Members
2003-2004	? Staff Members
2004-2005	? Staff Members
2005-2006	5 Full Time & 4 Part Time Staff Members
2006-2007	6 Full Time & 5 Part Time Staff Members
2007-2008	15 Staff Members
2008-2009	? Staff Members
2009-2010	5 Staff Members & 4 Fellows

Staff May 2010

• Helen Disney, Chief Executive and Founder
• Dr Meir Pugatch, Director of Research
• Dr Cristina Palomares, Chief Operating Officer

Research Officers

• Dr David Torstensson (Senior Researcher)
• Rachel Chu (Research Officer)

Fellows

• Paul Domjan (Energy Fellow)
• Jacob Arfwedson (Research Fellow), Joined 2006
• Paul Healy Policy Analyst
• Nasrin Hassam Accounts

Patrons and Directors 2002-2006

In April 2002 the SN listed the following as "patrons and directors":

• Catherine Barr Windels, Patron
• PJ Anders Linder, Patron
• Hardy Bouillon ,President of the Centre for the New Europe
• David Green Director, Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society
• Mattias Bengtsson, Director, Timbro
• Elisabeth Lulin, Director, Paradigmes

By May 2005 Hardy Bouillon was no longer listed although the rest of the list is unchanged, by January 2006 Catherine Barr Windels and PJ Anders Linder were no longer listed and no new patrons or directors were added to the list.

Stockholm Network Private Company Directors 2006-Present

The PR firm Market House International was set up to 'host' the Stockholm Network. The company was changed to being directly names as the Stockholm Network in 2006.. The companies incorporation documents list the following directors:

• Helen Disney
• Rick Nye

Former Personnel

• Anne Jensen, Project Officer, IP, Competition and Trade programme (2004-2007)
• Sacha Kumaria, is the Stockholm Network's Assistant Director.
• Peter Nolan Director of Environmental Affairs. (Left 2006)
• Terry O'Dwyer, Manager, Health and Welfare programme (2004-2006)
• Tim Evans, Director of Development (2005-2009)
• Francesca Ficai, Senior Researcher (Joined in October 2006 following a spell working for two Labour MP's)
• Shane Frith, Managing Director (Left the Network in August 2007)
• Simon Moore, Research Officer (2006-2009) (Joined following Internship)
• Katie Perrior, Media Director (July 2005-2008) (Before Joining the SN Katie Perrior 'worked for the Conservative Party Chairman and Conservative shadow home secretary during high profile campaigns'. Following a spell at the SN Perrior worked on Boris Johnson's 2008 Mayoral campaign)
• Susie Squire, Office Manager (2007-2009) Joined following an internship, Left to join the Taxpayers Alliance and then to advise Iain Duncan Smith)
• Cara Walker, Head of Communications (2005-2009)(Formerly Iain Duncan Smith's secretary then directed the Atlantic Bridge think tank 2003-2005, in 2005 she worked on Michael Howard's election campaign, she joined the Stockholm Network in the same year, in 2009 she left to join the Centre for Social Justice)

Contact, References and Resources

Contact information

35 Britannia Row

London, N1 8QH

United Kingdom

Email: info@ stockholm-network.org

Phone: +44 (0)20 7354 8888

Fax: +44 (0)20 7359 8888

Web: www.stockholm-network.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stockholm-Network/135765338804

Resources

• Wikipedia Stockholm Network
• Karen Horn, The Free-Marketeers get up. Even when the economy is in bad shape more and more think tanks get launched, Institut Economic Molinari, 11-June-2005, Accessed 26-April-2010
• SourceWatch Stockholm Network on SourceWatch
• Corporate Europe Observatory, "Covert industry funding fuels the expansion of radical rightwing EU think tanks", July 2005.
• Paul Staines, "You want policy? In cash?", The Times (London), 20 December 2005, Page 19.
• Helen Disney, Karen Horn, Pavel Hrobon, Johan Hjertqvist, Alastair Kilmarnock, Andreas Mihm, Alberto Mingardi, Cécile Philippe, David Smith, Eline van den Broek, Gerrold Verhoeks Impatient for Change: European attitudes to healthcare reform 13 May 2004.
• James Stanfield, RE: Stockholm Network, E-mail to Steven Harkins, E.G.West Centre, 10-May-2010, 9:26am
• Claire Rusbridge, FW: Stockholm Network, E-mail to Steven Harkins, Institute of Economic Affairs, 12-May-2010, 6:05pm
• Catherine Hoye, RE: Stockholm Network, E-mail to Steven Harkins, Centre for European Reform, 10-May-2010, 11:43am
• Helen Disney, RE:Stockholm Network Members, Stockholm Network, E-mail to Steven Harkins,
• Helen Disney, RE:Stockholm Network Members, Stockholm Network, 27-May-2010, 10:04, E-mail to Steven Harkins