Stockholm Network

The Stockholm Network is a working group of European market-oriented think-tanks. It has two primary objectives: to build a wide network of pro-market policy specialists within Europe and to use that network to influence the future direction of European policy-making on issues of pan-European importance. It was founded in 1997 in London and Stockholm.

On its website the groups states that it "brings together more than 110 market-oriented think tanks from across Europe, giving us the capacity to deliver local messages and locally-tailored global messages across the EU and beyond."

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'."

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. These are:

Adam Smith Institute | Centre for European Reform | Centre for Policy Studies | Centre for Research into Post-Communist Economies | CIVITAS | David Hume Institute | E.G. West Centre | Hayek Society | Institute of Economic Affairs | International Policy Network | Libertarian Alliance | Nurses for Reform | Open Europe | Policy Exchange | Policy Institute | Politeia | Project Empowerment | Reform | Social Affairs Unit | Globalization Institute

What topics we discuss:

The Network is interested in ideas which stimulate economic growth and help people to help themselves. We promote policies which create the social and economic conditions for a free society. These include:

• Reforming European welfare states and creating a more flexible labour market.
• Creating competition and choice in healthcare, through reform of European health systems and markets.
• Creating a market in which world class education can flourish.
• Emphasisng the benefits of globalisation and creating an understanding of free market ideas.

Members

• Adam Smith Institute, UK | 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 | 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 | 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

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

Personnel

• Helen Disney, Director
• Rick Nye, Company Secretary, also a director of opinion pollsters Populus
• Anne Jensen, Project Officer, IP, Competition and Trade programme
• Sacha Kumaria, is the Stockholm Network's Assistant Director.
• Peter Nolan is the Stockholm Network Director of Environmental Affairs.
• Terry O'Dwyer, Manager, Health and Welfare programme

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

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

External links

• 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.
• Wikipedia Stockholm Network
• 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.