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
Human rights in Estonia used every international forum where the claims of the violations of human rights in Estonia have been presented. The United Nations Development Programme's forum Development and Transition has discussed the situation of Estonia and Latvia in 2005. James Hughes, a US sociologist from the Trinity College, claimed Latvia and Estonia are both states "captured by the titular ethnic groups", employing a "sophisticated and extensive policy regime of discrimination" against their respective Russophone populations. He names three "pillars" of discrimination: refusal of citizenship, language usage, and participation rights, and claims discrimination is constrained by the "economic dependence on Russophone labour". Nils