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In my previous post, we were counting down to the first one hundred days in for the (new) Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and the flagship initiatives and priorities, such as the Green Deal, minimum wage discussions, AI, and more. That weathering through a pandemic would be added to the mix, just close to the hundred day mark, was out of anyone´s scope, surely even to those curious about VDL´s training as a medical doctor.

While I have recently returned to the NFU secretariat (although not returning to the physical workplace) after finishing my thesis, it feels like ages since I went on study leave in the beginning of March this year. Since then, a global pandemic has broken out, shaking our society at its core. Not only are the effects on individual’s health and everyday life devastating, but it has also sent ripples throughout the global economy and labour markets.

That is my key takeaway from my eleven years at NFU. When I started in November 2008, the big picture in the Nordic and European finance sectors was changing dramatically. The biggest financial crisis in a century unfolded before our eyes, destroying trillions of euros and dollars in assets and hundreds of thousands of finance jobs all over Europe. The big and the small, the faraway and the close, the perspectives blended rapidly together and NFU had to navigate through it all.

At NFU we are constantly monitoring the development in the sectors, both at Nordic, European and global level. 2019 has been characterized by an increasingly intense focus on sustainability, and particularly relating to the environment and climate change. In the wake of this green focus, another issue has (re)emerged at European level, namely the issue of Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD).