Estonian govt endorses new integration program

10.04.2008

Drawn up at the population minister's office, the document defines the strategic aims and concrete activities of government agencies and other institutions as well as means for their implementation.

"The aim of the new integration program is to support every Estonian permanent resident's sense of belonging through sharing common values and command of the official language," said Population Minister Urve Palo. "The aim of the program is to develop the common meaning of the state for all residents of Estonia. All residents of Estonia are necessary for the state to be successful."

The minister added that compared with the program of the previous period more emphasis has been laid on contacts between different ethnic communities, joint actvities and state identity.

Among other things the program focuses on multicultural schooling and labor exchange for public sector employees and schools, summer extracurricular project for students of Estonian and Russian-medium schools and joint activity projects for adults.

Support to ethnic minorities cultural societies and Sunday school will continue.

Besides, the integration program will launch free Estonian courses for citizenship applicants and continuation of free Constitution and Citizenship Act courses. Free language learning should be offered to 1,500 people a year.

Also the language immersion program will continue with new shools and kindergartens involved in it.

The annual expenses on the program, both from the state budget and extremal resources, will be the nearly 160 million kroons (EUR 10 mln) a year.

The integration program is published on the web site http://www.rahvastikuminister.ee .

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee