1. SWEDEN AND THE NETHERLANDS – 400 YEARS A photo-impression

2. Introduction In 2014, Sweden and the Netherlands celebrated 400 years of diplomatic relations and friendship by commemorating the establishment of the first Swedish embassy in the world (The Hague, 5 April 1614). The Swedish Embassy in The Hague and the Netherlands Embassy in Stockholm agreed to celebrate this occasion by highlighting the good bilateral relations between our countries. An extensive programme with a.o. cultural activities, economic seminars and visits was planned by both embassies. Keywords were “future-oriented” and “talent-development”. All staff members were included in the planning which started at a brainstorm meeting in November 2012. Regular video-meetings were held between the Swedish and Netherlands Embassy. The 1614 Treaty between Sweden and The Netherlands In April 1614, a peace and friendship covenant was signed between Sweden and the Netherlands which, among other things, concluded that both countries would exchange ambassadors. The reason behind choosing The Netherlands as the first country to establish an embassy, came quite naturally since relations with The Netherlands were of great importance to Sweden's foreign politics. The first permanent embassy was opened in The Hague under the reign of Gustav II Adolf.

3. 14 October 2013: During a formal courtesy call of the new Dutch King and Queen to their Swedish counterparts attention was paid to the upcoming anniversary year. During this visit, the royal couple was accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Frans Timmermans, who also had a bilateral meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima also visited the Swedish Parliament. They were received by the Speaker of the Riksdag Per Westerberg, his Deputy Speakers and Secretary-General of the Riksdag Kathrin Flossing. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima were received by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia together with Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel and Prince Carl Philip.

4. 17 January: Kick off event in The Hague In January, the year kicked-off! Both in The Netherlands and in Sweden, receptions were organised to mark the start of the anniversary year. At these events, guests were encouraged to initiate own ideas. 28 January: Kick off event in Stockholm

5. Cultural events The Amstel Quartet and other Dutch musicians performed at the Festival o/modernt. During the year 2014, many cultural events took place. In Sweden, the autumn was dedicated to cultural activities. With the help of DutchCulture, 10 cultural projects were selected with young talent and talent development as a specific focus. Ambassador Philip de Heer: “The Dutch Autumn in Sweden is a fantastic way to show what The Netherlands has on offer and gives us the opportunity to get to know each other even better, to enrich one another and to increase the mutual cooperation between Sweden and The Netherlands.”

6. Nederlands Dans Theater performed three evenings at a sold-out Dansens Hus. They performed dances by Swedish choreographers. As part of their visit they gave a master class for the students of the Swedish Ballet Academy. Frank Schipper, Netherlands Embassy, Stockholm: “This was a fantastic year to organize. Together with the Swedish Embassy we managed to highlight the friendship between our countries through exciting cultural events, interesting seminars and mutual visits. My personal highlight of the year was the master class that was given by Olivier Coeffard of Nederlands Dans Theater to students of the Swedish Balettakademien.”

7. Writers Cees Nooteboom and Murat Isik visited Sweden and discussed their work with interested Swedish audiences in Gothenburg and Stockholm.

8. A digital bridge was built between Stockholm and The Hague as well as between Umeå and Amsterdam, a way for anyone passing by to connect to the other side. Highlight on Swedish films during the Cinekid Festival The Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra, with Dutch conductor Lawrence Renes, performed at the Dr Anton Philipszaal in The Hague.

9. Musical celebrations of the 400-year relationship took place with musicians from Sweden and The Netherlands performing works by composers from Sweden and The Netherlands.

10. Unique exhibitions with Dutch and/or Swedish painters were organised The exhibition “Alexander Roslin – Portraitist of the Aristocracy” opened on 18 October at Rijksmuseum Twenthe. Stockholm Nationalmuseum contributed 16 of its best-known works by the much- loved 18th-century artist The Zorn Museum in Mora heard about the 400-year anniversary and decided to exhibit its collection of Rembrandt etchings.

11. “The Conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civilis”, in its original size Rembrandt’s largest and most prestigious painting, is on view at the Gallery of Honour at the Rijksmuseum. The painting is owned by the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and has been at the Nationalmuseum of Art in Stockholm for more than 150 years.

12. Swedish writer Jan Guillou was present at the Crossing Border Festival in The Hague. Swedish DJ Avicii (Tim Bergling) played at the Sky City Festival in Amsterdam. André Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra performed at Malmö Arena. The Cornelis Vreeswijk Associations in Sweden and The Netherlands organised several events.

13. The performance Marmalade, directed by Claire Parsons could be seen at the Childrens Art Festival “De Betovering” “Knitting Peace” by Swedish Cirkus Cirkör went on tour to the Netherlands Dutch theatre company Tryater played their childrens performance Fabelkrêft in the European Capital of Culture Umeå.

14. 13 February: “Strengthening Nuclear Security: Northern European perspectives” (Stockholm) with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (in advance of the Nuclear Security Summit that took place on 24 and 25 March in The Hague). 4 April: “Frontrunners Round Table” - Amsterdam A Round Table was organised with the aim to discuss what barriers businesses still face within the Single Market. With Swedish Minister for Trade and Nordic Cooperation Mrs Ewa Björling and Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Mr Henk Kamp. Seminars On topics that concerned both our countries, The Netherlands and Sweden organised several seminars. The seminars were very well attended and had positive results. Below some of the highlights.

15. 4 April: Innovation & Growth Seminar - Amsterdam The seminar took place in the presence of Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

16. 7 May: De Lage Landen celebrated their 10- year presence in Sweden. Jack Vreeswijk, son of Cornelis Vreeswijk, performed at the event. 13 May: “Building a cycling region” The city of Goteborg consulted Dutch cycling experts to hear their approach on cycling in the city and the social and economic benefits of cycling.

17. 3 – 4 June: Cycling Conference, Malmö 17 september: Swedish – Dutch Architecture Seminar - Stockholm 19 September: Round table meeting “International cultural policy : two different approaches?” - Stockholm

18. 19 September: “Dutch – Swedish Game Connection” – Stockholm. A meeting to connect Dutch game designers to Swedish game designers / companies. 24 – 25 September: Trade seminar in Gothenburg

19. 30 September: Doing Business in Sweden (NCH, Fenedex and Handelsbanken) – Amsterdam. With a presentation by the Trade & Innovation Officer of the Netherlands Embassy in Sweden. 16 October: ”Fighting Youth Unemployment: Lessons from the Netherlands and Sweden” – Stockholm. With the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies.

20. 3 November: Visit by Eindhoven University of Technology to Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology to further strengthen existing cooperation. 13 November: Network event to present Dutch floriculture to Swedish media.

21. 9 December: Open seminar at the Netherlands Embassy in Stockholm on the future of cross-border e- commerce in the EU Single Market, in close cooperation with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs Mr Oscar Stenström, State Secretary for Enterprise & Innovation delivered the key note address. Swedish and Dutch companies presented their experiences regarding the potential and challenges of cross-border e-commerce in the Single Market.

22. Other activities “The Swedes & the Dutch were made for each other.” Together with the Swedish Embassy, an anniversary book was produced in which the many interesting connections between Sweden and The Netherlands were highlighted. The first book was presented to the Kings of Sweden and the Netherlands on 5 April 2014, exactly 400 years after the signing of the treaty

23. Wikipedia organised “writing weeks” and increased its Sweden-related articles with more than 1,000 contributions During the visit of Mrs Ankie Broekers – Knol, Speaker of the Senate and Mrs Anouchka van Miltenburg, Speaker of the House of Representatives, a copy of the 1614-treaty was presented to the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament and the Director of the Swedish National Archives.

24. The Dutch participants at Bocuse d’Or - the World Cooking Contest, hosted in 2014 by Sweden - were supported by the Dutch Embassy. Visits by the Royal Netherlands Navy were facilitated Several Netherlands-related exhibitions were opened. Above, the exhibition about the Dutch “ghost ship”. Below, the art exhibition by Ardy Struwer.

25. The Botanical Garden in Uppsala highlighted the anniversary year with a Dutch flower-garden. Several Nation Branding activities took place, here at the Runn Winter Week and the event “Make Stockholm a cycling city”.

26. During the year, many presentations were given about the 400-year long friendship between Sweden and The Netherlands. Many visitors were received at the residence of the ambassador to hear more about the work of the embassy and the diplomatic relation between our countries.

27. Visits (highlights) Foto Ploumen op facebook 28 January: Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen paid a bilateral visit to Sweden. 9 – 10 June: Prime Minister Mark Rutte participated in the high-level Harpsund Meeting.

28. On 4 and 5 April 2014, H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf and H.M. Queen Silvia visited The Netherlands.

29. 25 – 26 August: Mrs Ankie Broekers – Knol, Speaker of the Senate and Mrs Anouchka van Miltenburg, Speaker of the House of Representatives visited Sweden together with members of parliament Tineke Strik and Angelien Eijsink. During their visit they met with Dutch nationals living and working in Sweden. 3 June: Sofia Arkelsten, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Swedish Parliament, visited The Hague.

30. Many groups visited the Embassy and/or The Residence. Here the Association of Young Diplomats of the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs (11 June). Sharon Dijksma, State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs met with her Swedish counterpart Eskil Erlandsson.

31. Social media During the year, the Swedish and Netherlands Embassy had a coordinated communication strategy with regard to social media. The use of Facebook and Twitter increased. This way, the information about the activities reached a wide audience. Two YouTube video’s were produced to announce the anniversary year and explain the importance of the celebration.

32. A logo was designed by a Swedish designer in The Netherlands. The logo was used to increase the visibility of the anniversary year and the activities that were organised. The barcode reflects the number “400” in the internationally applied GTIN-13-code (Global Trade Item Information). The colours reflect our two countries: yellow and blue for Sweden and orange for The Netherlands.

34. An anniversary website was developed by a Dutch company in Sweden. On the website all cultural activities and economic seminars in The Netherlands and Sweden were listed. The website – in Swedish and Dutch - also gave background to the anniversary year and invited visitors to propose ideas. www.swe400nl.com

35. Visitors of the website contributed with their own “Sweden – The Netherlands stories”.

36. Media attention (selection)

38. The royal visits were popular amongst the media. Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs interviewed at the Nuclear Security Summit, The Hague.

39. Future Some reactions we have received during the year: “We have greatly enjoyed the cooperation with all of you and we look back on a very successful and fruitful NL-SWE year.” “We think that we have celebrated our 400 years of diplomatic relationships in style and achieved some very important progress on both our Frontrunners cooperation and our policy cooperation.” “It has been a very successful year for the Dutch-Swedish relations. Let’s keep it up as we enter into the new year 2015.” Philip de Heer, Ambassador of The Netherlands to Sweden: “This year has definitely served its purpose. We wanted to highlight the topics that connect our countries. We have done this through seminars and cultural events of high quality and great relevance. These were both important and interesting as they gave new impetus to and re-energised our common goals. After the exciting year 2014 and the positive reactions we have received, I can conclude that working together on the future has already started!”