Baltoscandia provided by the Panevėžys city municipality, but the functions of the academy did not meet the criteria of the functions of the mentioned municipality. The Nordic-Baltic Eight or "NB8", where 8 stands for the number of States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden). Baltoscandia The Baltoscandian Confederation or Baltoscandia is a geopolitical concept of a Baltic–Scandinavian union (consisting of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The idea was proposed by a Swedish professor Sten de Geer (1886–1933) in the journal "Geografiska Annaler" in 1928 and further developed by Professor (1893–1960), a Lithuanian scientist in
Economy of Estonia for Latvia. Estonia today is mainly influenced by developments in Finland, Russia, Sweden and Germany – the four main trade partners. The government recently greatly increased its spending on innovation. The prime minister from the Estonian Reform Party has stated its goal of bringing Estonian GDP per capita into the top 5 of the EU by 2022. However, the GDP of Estonia decreased by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter of 2008, over 3% in the 3rd quarter of 2008, and over 9% in the 4th quarter of 2008. The Estonian economy further contracted by 15.1% in the first quarter of