The objectives of the French Presidency that are of particular interest to Estonia include increased attention on the security situation, developing the digital internal market, discussions on the climate package, and reinforcing the external borders of the EU and the Schengen area. Naturally, Estonia welcomes France’s call to increase the use of the native languages of member states.
At the discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic, the foreign minister said Estonia prioritised a coordinated and individual approach to make sure people were still able to move safely and freely in the EU. “This is why I am very glad that we adopted a revised recommendation on movement inside the European Union, stating that no additional restrictions should apply to passengers with a valid digital EU COVID certificate, except in extraordinary cases. Rules for passengers arriving from third countries are also being unified with the individual approach, allowing non-essential travel into the EU for all passengers who are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19,” Liimets said.
The agenda of the General Affairs Council also included the European Democracy Action Plan that the ministers discussed at length for the first time, the state of play of the Conference on the Future of Europe, and EU-UK relations.
After the council meeting, the minister met with European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of digital affairs, and Liimets highlighted the need to make quick progress with legislation on the digital single market, including digital markets and services, as well as with the digitalisation of the legal system and reinforcing cybersecurity throughout the EU. “We need to concentrate on improving the free movement of data to increase the competitiveness of the EU’s data economy. I told the commissioner that the EU’s main goals should include moving forward with the digital common market and the framework of the European Digital Identity. We need functioning solutions for the electronic identity, so that the widespread use of a reliable and secure e-ID similar to Estonia is available to all citizens of member states,” the foreign minister said.
Liimets also underlined the need to support Ukraine in the digital and cyber domain in the current difficult security situation. Liimets and Vestager also discussed ways of working together on trusted connectivity.
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