DOMESTIC NEWS
FOREIGN NEWS
ECONOMIC NEWS
DOMESTIC NEWS
Estonian parliament endorses Siim Kallas as prime minister
Jan 22 - The Estonian parliament approved the appointment of Siim Kallas, chairman of the Reform Party and finance minister in the previous government, as the new prime minister. The 101-seat chamber voted 62-31, with no abstentions, to give Kallas powers to set up the country's next government. The candidate prime minister needed a majority of votes in order to win a mandate. Voting in Kallas' favour were the Centre faction, the Reform Party faction, the faction of the mostly Russian-speaking Estonian United People's Party, as well as most members of the People's Union faction. The Reform's partners in the previous government - Pro Patria Union and Moderates - voted against the nomination. After being authorised by the parliament to form a government, the candidate prime minister has seven days to present his cabinet line-up to the president, who in his turn is to appoint the government to office within three days. When addressing the parliament, Estonian prime minister designate Siim Kallas said the main objectives of the new government would be to reduce domestic political tensions, pursue a growth oriented economic policy and maintain continuity in foreign policy. Kallas said reducing internal tensions and social confrontation were among the primary goals of the new government. He named pursuing a growth-oriented economic policy, keeping the budget balanced and the tax policy unchanged as other key goals. The prime minister designate named maintaining the country's existing foreign policy priorities of EU and NATO accession as the third major objective. "There will be no putting the brakes on the negotiations, none of the chapters already closed will be opened again," Kallas said. Born October 2, 1948, in Tallinn, Kallas graduated in 1972 from Tartu University where he specialised in finance and credit. He worked as a specialist for the then Soviet Estonian Finance Ministry in 1975-1979 and headed the Estonian Saving Banks Administration in 1979-1986. In 1986-1989 Kallas was deputy editor of the daily Rahva Hääl (People's Voice), in 1989-1991 chairman of the Estonian Central Trade Unions Association, in 1991-1995 president of the Bank of Estonia, in 1995-1996 foreign minister and in 1995-1999 member of parliament. In spring 1999, Kallas became finance minister in the Mart Laar-led coalition government of Pro Patria Union, Moderates and the Reform Party. Kallas has been chairman of the Reform Party since its establishment in 1994.
For more information about the new cabinet, please see: http://www.vm.ee
Forming new government boosts Reform Party's rating
Jan 22 - The rating of the Estonian Reform Party improved significantly as the party formed a new government coalition with the opposition Centre Party, after spending more than two-and-a-half years in the government with the Pro Patria Union and Moderates. A survey by pollsters Emor also suggests that voter support for the People's Union, formerly the second largest opposition force after the Centre Party, fell after the party gave up the opportunity to ascend to power. The Centre Party maintained its number one position among Estonia's political parties in early January with 21 percent approval, up from 18 percent in a similar poll at the end of December. The Reform Party's rating, at 14 percent, marks a significant increase over nine percent in late December. Support for the People's Union, which had boosted its rating with the election of its honorary chairman Arnold Rüütel as president in the fall, fell from 11 percent at the end of the year to eight percent in the first half of January. The Moderates saw their rating remain stable at seven percent during the month. The Pro Patria Union, party of former Prime Minister Mart Laar, met the new year with an approval rating of eight percent, which rose to nine percent in the early part of January. The Union for the Republic (Res Publica), the newcomer on Estonia's political scene, enjoyed the support of seven percent of the voters in early December, but slid to four percent in the second half of the month before climbing to eight percent approval in January. Among individual politicians, the Moderates' leader and outgoing minister of foreign affairs, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, was the winner with 5.49 percent popular approval, followed by Res Publica leader Rein Taagepera with 4.74 percent, and Centre Party chairman Edgar Savisaar with 4.42 percent. Outgoing Prime Minister Mart Laar enjoyed the support of 3.76 percent of respondents while his replacement Siim Kallas was favoured by 3.87 percent.
Demand for info on EU doubled in Estonia
Jan 25 - Last year, interest in information on the European Union nearly doubled as compared with 2000, according to the yearly reports of EU information centres. The number of inquiries has steadily increased and the questions have become more competent and detailed all the time, press officer of the EU Information Centre of the European Commission's Delegation to Estonia reported. Demand is the highest for information concerning relations of the European Union and Estonia, followed by inquiries about legal acts of the European Union and Estonia as well as the European Union's aid programs. Students and public servants, and increasingly also private businessmen are the most active in making inquiries. In 2001, the EU Information Centre answered an average of 24 inquiries a day, with a total of 4,662 inquiries made during the year. The number of visits during the year was 2,017. The EU information centre at the Estonian National Library, which has extensive reference materials, periodicals and official EU documents available, draws the largest number of visitors.
FOREIGN NEWS
Finland reaffirms continued support for Estonia's EU membership
Jan 24 - Finnish President Tarja Halonen said at a meeting with her visiting Estonian counterpart Arnold Rüütel that Finland continued to support the entry of Estonia into the European Union among the first new members. Rüütel, on a one-day working visit in Finland, spoke to the Finnish head of state about the formation of the new government coalition in Estonia. Both Rüütel and Halonen said they were pleased that the new government would keep Estonia's present foreign policy priorities unchanged and had promised to do everything so that the country's negotiations with the EU would come to a positive conclusion within the current year. Rüütel also made a speech on the priorities of Estonia at a joint meeting of the Paasikivi and Tuglas societies in the festive hall of Helsinki University. President Rüütel said in his speech that in striving for accession to the European Union and NATO Estonia had not been “less consequent than in restoring our sovereignty, for we have recognised this to be inevitable. /---/ If Estonia will complete its accession negotiations with the European Union this year /---/ and if in a couple of years Estonia will be a full member of the European Union then, once again, we will have a chance to prove that involving small nations into the structures of international co-operation actually contributes to the deepening of international dialogue and to détente. It is just through the small nations that the minority principle can be highlighted. There is always a minority compared with someone or something. This principle having become rooted in democratic societies has helped to further the internal flexibility and diversity of those societies.” As to NATO, the President said that “Estonia values highly the principles of the defence strategy of the Republic of Finland and acknowledges that an independent country, above all, must trust in its own defence capabilities and bear responsibility for them. /----/ The fact that Estonia has decided in favour of NATO membership cannot cut back our future co-operation in the field of defence. The experiences of these Eastern and Central European countries, which have been admitted to NATO, have proven that it does not equal to concentration of forces for the purpose of confronting somebody. It is a matter of joining up the defence will of democracies, adjusting certain standards and modes of behaviour on the basis of mutual trust. “
Please see the full speech under: http://www.president.ee
Next two months decisive in Estonia's EU talks
Jan 25 - A meeting of the chief negotiators of the six candidate countries of the Luxembourg group took place in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The aim of the meeting was to jointly discuss the course of the talks so far and outlooks for the beginning year. The meeting addressed the current state of affairs at the talks, the countries' problems in certain spheres and chapters of the so-called financial package: agriculture, regional policy, financial and budgetary issues, which will presumably cause hot debates and complicated talks this year. Also discussed were talks in the chapter of institutions and issues connected with the drawing up of the accession agreement. The next two months are of decisive importance for candidate countries of the European Union if they want to gain good accession terms, Estonia's chief negotiator Alar Streimann said. According to Streimann, only horizontal solutions are apparently possible in chapters connected with finances, which means that the positions the European Union will shape this spring will be equal for all the candidate countries and different settlements by individual countries will be ruled out. Chief negotiators of Estonia, Cyprus, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Hungary regularly meet three or four times a year to exchange information and co-ordinate their activities in accession to the EU.
Gender equality in Estonia discussed in UN committee
Jan 25 - Deputy under-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marina Kaljurand was in New York to present to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women the measures that Estonia has taken for the compliance with the respective convention. In the words of Marina Kaljurand a review of the report as well as additional information was presented. "The presentation was received well and the feedback was positive," said Kaljurand. She added that, according to the committee members, the presentation of the report and the accompanying discussion would warrant a better implementation of the provisions of the convention. Estonia acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 26 September 1991.
ECONOMIC NEWS
IMF: Baltic states ready for EU and NATO
Jan 25 - Ten years after regaining their independence, the Baltic states are on the verge of acceding to the European Union and NATO, the IMF stated in its report. The report says that “As of end-November 2001, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have closed more than half of 31 negotiation chapters of the EU acquis communautaire, including the difficult environmental chapter, and are expected to close the remaining chapters by end-2002. This has raised the prospect of all three countries being invited to join the EU in 2004, following the decision of the Laeken European summit in December 2001. In the same vein, the Baltics could be invited to join NATO in the near future." According to the report Baltic countries also "are well placed to face the fiscal challenges of EU and NATO accession."
Please see the full report "The Baltics: Medium-Term Fiscal Issues Related to EU and NATO Accession" under: http://www.imf.org
Finland won title of "Friend of Estonian Export 2001"
Jan 21 - The Estonian Trade Council (ETC) awarded to Finland the title of Friend of Estonian Export, and Finnish Ambassador Jaakko Blomberg received the award. "The main reason for choosing Finland as the winner is that through time it has been Estonia's biggest export and general trade partner," ETC reported. According to ETC, the main aim of the award is to attract the public's attention to positive developments in connection with the development of exports and to recognise institutions, agencies and corporations that have significantly contributed to this development.
Currency Rates in Kroons
January 25, 2002
British pound - GBP - 25.430
Canadian dollar - CAD - 11.161
Swiss franc - CHF - 10.661
Danish krone - DKK - 2.106
Finnish markka - FIM - 2.631
French franc - FRF - 2.385
German mark - DEM - 8.000
Japanese yen - JPY - 0.132
Latvian lat - LVL - 27.891
Lithuanian lit - LTL - 4.474
Norwegian krone - NOK - 1.988
Russian rouble - RUB - 0.583
Swedish krona - SEK - 1.695
US dollar - USD - 17.891
Euro - EUR - 15.646
EESTI RINGVAADE is compiled from local news services, including BNS and ETA, and is issued by the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Estonian Review does not reflect the official policy of the MFA.
Eesti Ringvaade is also available through the Internet at http://www.vm.ee
To subscribe please contact: [email protected]
FOREIGN NEWS
ECONOMIC NEWS
DOMESTIC NEWS
Estonian parliament endorses Siim Kallas as prime minister
Jan 22 - The Estonian parliament approved the appointment of Siim Kallas, chairman of the Reform Party and finance minister in the previous government, as the new prime minister. The 101-seat chamber voted 62-31, with no abstentions, to give Kallas powers to set up the country's next government. The candidate prime minister needed a majority of votes in order to win a mandate. Voting in Kallas' favour were the Centre faction, the Reform Party faction, the faction of the mostly Russian-speaking Estonian United People's Party, as well as most members of the People's Union faction. The Reform's partners in the previous government - Pro Patria Union and Moderates - voted against the nomination. After being authorised by the parliament to form a government, the candidate prime minister has seven days to present his cabinet line-up to the president, who in his turn is to appoint the government to office within three days. When addressing the parliament, Estonian prime minister designate Siim Kallas said the main objectives of the new government would be to reduce domestic political tensions, pursue a growth oriented economic policy and maintain continuity in foreign policy. Kallas said reducing internal tensions and social confrontation were among the primary goals of the new government. He named pursuing a growth-oriented economic policy, keeping the budget balanced and the tax policy unchanged as other key goals. The prime minister designate named maintaining the country's existing foreign policy priorities of EU and NATO accession as the third major objective. "There will be no putting the brakes on the negotiations, none of the chapters already closed will be opened again," Kallas said. Born October 2, 1948, in Tallinn, Kallas graduated in 1972 from Tartu University where he specialised in finance and credit. He worked as a specialist for the then Soviet Estonian Finance Ministry in 1975-1979 and headed the Estonian Saving Banks Administration in 1979-1986. In 1986-1989 Kallas was deputy editor of the daily Rahva Hääl (People's Voice), in 1989-1991 chairman of the Estonian Central Trade Unions Association, in 1991-1995 president of the Bank of Estonia, in 1995-1996 foreign minister and in 1995-1999 member of parliament. In spring 1999, Kallas became finance minister in the Mart Laar-led coalition government of Pro Patria Union, Moderates and the Reform Party. Kallas has been chairman of the Reform Party since its establishment in 1994.
For more information about the new cabinet, please see: http://www.vm.ee
Forming new government boosts Reform Party's rating
Jan 22 - The rating of the Estonian Reform Party improved significantly as the party formed a new government coalition with the opposition Centre Party, after spending more than two-and-a-half years in the government with the Pro Patria Union and Moderates. A survey by pollsters Emor also suggests that voter support for the People's Union, formerly the second largest opposition force after the Centre Party, fell after the party gave up the opportunity to ascend to power. The Centre Party maintained its number one position among Estonia's political parties in early January with 21 percent approval, up from 18 percent in a similar poll at the end of December. The Reform Party's rating, at 14 percent, marks a significant increase over nine percent in late December. Support for the People's Union, which had boosted its rating with the election of its honorary chairman Arnold Rüütel as president in the fall, fell from 11 percent at the end of the year to eight percent in the first half of January. The Moderates saw their rating remain stable at seven percent during the month. The Pro Patria Union, party of former Prime Minister Mart Laar, met the new year with an approval rating of eight percent, which rose to nine percent in the early part of January. The Union for the Republic (Res Publica), the newcomer on Estonia's political scene, enjoyed the support of seven percent of the voters in early December, but slid to four percent in the second half of the month before climbing to eight percent approval in January. Among individual politicians, the Moderates' leader and outgoing minister of foreign affairs, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, was the winner with 5.49 percent popular approval, followed by Res Publica leader Rein Taagepera with 4.74 percent, and Centre Party chairman Edgar Savisaar with 4.42 percent. Outgoing Prime Minister Mart Laar enjoyed the support of 3.76 percent of respondents while his replacement Siim Kallas was favoured by 3.87 percent.
Demand for info on EU doubled in Estonia
Jan 25 - Last year, interest in information on the European Union nearly doubled as compared with 2000, according to the yearly reports of EU information centres. The number of inquiries has steadily increased and the questions have become more competent and detailed all the time, press officer of the EU Information Centre of the European Commission's Delegation to Estonia reported. Demand is the highest for information concerning relations of the European Union and Estonia, followed by inquiries about legal acts of the European Union and Estonia as well as the European Union's aid programs. Students and public servants, and increasingly also private businessmen are the most active in making inquiries. In 2001, the EU Information Centre answered an average of 24 inquiries a day, with a total of 4,662 inquiries made during the year. The number of visits during the year was 2,017. The EU information centre at the Estonian National Library, which has extensive reference materials, periodicals and official EU documents available, draws the largest number of visitors.
FOREIGN NEWS
Finland reaffirms continued support for Estonia's EU membership
Jan 24 - Finnish President Tarja Halonen said at a meeting with her visiting Estonian counterpart Arnold Rüütel that Finland continued to support the entry of Estonia into the European Union among the first new members. Rüütel, on a one-day working visit in Finland, spoke to the Finnish head of state about the formation of the new government coalition in Estonia. Both Rüütel and Halonen said they were pleased that the new government would keep Estonia's present foreign policy priorities unchanged and had promised to do everything so that the country's negotiations with the EU would come to a positive conclusion within the current year. Rüütel also made a speech on the priorities of Estonia at a joint meeting of the Paasikivi and Tuglas societies in the festive hall of Helsinki University. President Rüütel said in his speech that in striving for accession to the European Union and NATO Estonia had not been “less consequent than in restoring our sovereignty, for we have recognised this to be inevitable. /---/ If Estonia will complete its accession negotiations with the European Union this year /---/ and if in a couple of years Estonia will be a full member of the European Union then, once again, we will have a chance to prove that involving small nations into the structures of international co-operation actually contributes to the deepening of international dialogue and to détente. It is just through the small nations that the minority principle can be highlighted. There is always a minority compared with someone or something. This principle having become rooted in democratic societies has helped to further the internal flexibility and diversity of those societies.” As to NATO, the President said that “Estonia values highly the principles of the defence strategy of the Republic of Finland and acknowledges that an independent country, above all, must trust in its own defence capabilities and bear responsibility for them. /----/ The fact that Estonia has decided in favour of NATO membership cannot cut back our future co-operation in the field of defence. The experiences of these Eastern and Central European countries, which have been admitted to NATO, have proven that it does not equal to concentration of forces for the purpose of confronting somebody. It is a matter of joining up the defence will of democracies, adjusting certain standards and modes of behaviour on the basis of mutual trust. “
Please see the full speech under: http://www.president.ee
Next two months decisive in Estonia's EU talks
Jan 25 - A meeting of the chief negotiators of the six candidate countries of the Luxembourg group took place in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The aim of the meeting was to jointly discuss the course of the talks so far and outlooks for the beginning year. The meeting addressed the current state of affairs at the talks, the countries' problems in certain spheres and chapters of the so-called financial package: agriculture, regional policy, financial and budgetary issues, which will presumably cause hot debates and complicated talks this year. Also discussed were talks in the chapter of institutions and issues connected with the drawing up of the accession agreement. The next two months are of decisive importance for candidate countries of the European Union if they want to gain good accession terms, Estonia's chief negotiator Alar Streimann said. According to Streimann, only horizontal solutions are apparently possible in chapters connected with finances, which means that the positions the European Union will shape this spring will be equal for all the candidate countries and different settlements by individual countries will be ruled out. Chief negotiators of Estonia, Cyprus, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Hungary regularly meet three or four times a year to exchange information and co-ordinate their activities in accession to the EU.
Gender equality in Estonia discussed in UN committee
Jan 25 - Deputy under-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marina Kaljurand was in New York to present to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women the measures that Estonia has taken for the compliance with the respective convention. In the words of Marina Kaljurand a review of the report as well as additional information was presented. "The presentation was received well and the feedback was positive," said Kaljurand. She added that, according to the committee members, the presentation of the report and the accompanying discussion would warrant a better implementation of the provisions of the convention. Estonia acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 26 September 1991.
ECONOMIC NEWS
IMF: Baltic states ready for EU and NATO
Jan 25 - Ten years after regaining their independence, the Baltic states are on the verge of acceding to the European Union and NATO, the IMF stated in its report. The report says that “As of end-November 2001, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have closed more than half of 31 negotiation chapters of the EU acquis communautaire, including the difficult environmental chapter, and are expected to close the remaining chapters by end-2002. This has raised the prospect of all three countries being invited to join the EU in 2004, following the decision of the Laeken European summit in December 2001. In the same vein, the Baltics could be invited to join NATO in the near future." According to the report Baltic countries also "are well placed to face the fiscal challenges of EU and NATO accession."
Please see the full report "The Baltics: Medium-Term Fiscal Issues Related to EU and NATO Accession" under: http://www.imf.org
Finland won title of "Friend of Estonian Export 2001"
Jan 21 - The Estonian Trade Council (ETC) awarded to Finland the title of Friend of Estonian Export, and Finnish Ambassador Jaakko Blomberg received the award. "The main reason for choosing Finland as the winner is that through time it has been Estonia's biggest export and general trade partner," ETC reported. According to ETC, the main aim of the award is to attract the public's attention to positive developments in connection with the development of exports and to recognise institutions, agencies and corporations that have significantly contributed to this development.
Currency Rates in Kroons
January 25, 2002
British pound - GBP - 25.430
Canadian dollar - CAD - 11.161
Swiss franc - CHF - 10.661
Danish krone - DKK - 2.106
Finnish markka - FIM - 2.631
French franc - FRF - 2.385
German mark - DEM - 8.000
Japanese yen - JPY - 0.132
Latvian lat - LVL - 27.891
Lithuanian lit - LTL - 4.474
Norwegian krone - NOK - 1.988
Russian rouble - RUB - 0.583
Swedish krona - SEK - 1.695
US dollar - USD - 17.891
Euro - EUR - 15.646
EESTI RINGVAADE is compiled from local news services, including BNS and ETA, and is issued by the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Estonian Review does not reflect the official policy of the MFA.
Eesti Ringvaade is also available through the Internet at http://www.vm.ee
To subscribe please contact: [email protected]
