The New Hanseatic League, or the Hansa, was established in February 2018 by European Unionfinance ministers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden through the signing of a two-page foundational document which set out the countries' "shared views and values in the discussion on the architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union." The name is derived from the Hanseatic League, a Northern European commercial and defensive league which lasted until the 16th century. The New Hanseatic League developed from an informal cooperation among like-minded fiscally conservative northern European states that has also been referred to at various points as 'The Vikings' and the 'Bad Weather coalition'. The grouping sees clubbing together as a way to make up for the loss of the like-minded Britain in the European political arena after Brexit. The countries involved want a more developed European single market, particularly in the services sector. They also want to develop the European Stability Mechanism into a full European Monetary Fund that would redistribute wealth from trade surplus to trade deficitEU member states. A number of think tanks - including - support this policy approach In a speech delivered in the Netherlands, Ireland's TánaisteSimon Coveney suggested cooperation among the countries in the alliance could extend to foreign policy as well, such as the Middle East peace process and the EU's relations with Africa. Some have expressed fears the New Hanseatic League could exacerbate existing north-south political divides in Europe by grouping northern European countries too closely. A more recent fiscally conservative group of EU nations exists in an informal setting, dubbed the Frugal Four. It consists of some of the New Hanseatic League member nations plus Austria. In November 2018, the New Hanseatic group called for the European Stability Mechanism to be given a greater role in scrutinising national budgets. Under the plan, formal tests of a government’s debt sustainability and ability to repay would be carried out before aid could be provided. The call came after the European Commission's rejection of Italy's 2019 budget, and was signed by ten countries, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
