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Estonian Review: February 20 - March 5, 2006 
08.03.2006
TOP NEWS
FOREIGN NEWS
DEFENCE NEWS
DOMESTIC NEWS
ECONOMIC NEWS
CULTURAL NEWS
SPORTS NEWS
TOP NEWS
FM: Steep Rise in Visa Fees not in Line With EU Neighbourhood Policy
Feb 27 - Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said a steep rise in visa fees from citizens of third countries would be in contradiction to the EU neighbourhood policy. A rise in visa fees was discussed at the EU foreign ministers' council in Brussels.
The Foreign Ministry reported Paet as saying that the decision of raising visa fees could not be made before the consequences of the decision had been thoroughly discussed. "A steep rise in visa fees is in contradiction with the European Union's neighbourhood policy, which is aimed at better and more frequent communication with neighbours," he added. "Considering the importance of the neighbourhood policy, exceptions will have to be made with regard to countries that have an outlook for accession to the EU as well as those with whom we have European neighbourhood policy plans of action."
Paet said the best way out would be signing of visa easing agreements between the EU and third countries together with readmission agreements. The issue was discussed at a recent meeting of justice and interior ministers where an agreement was reached that addition of biometrical data to visa stickers would raise the cost of the handling of visas and so the visa fees would have to be raised.
According to Reuters Poland, Hungary and Lithuania expressed views similar with those of Estonia. Referring to new security technology, mainly France wants to raise the visa fees to 60 euros. At present it is about 35 euros.
New EU member countries currently apply their own prices but have to bring them into line with EU standards by the time all interior border controls are abolished, presumably by October 2007.
EU interior ministers want to make their final decision concerning the visa fees at their meeting on April 27-28. France wants the new visa fees established already as of January 2007.
Estonian FM: Baltic States Need to Look for Alternative Sources of Energy Supply
Mar 3 - Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Vytautas Landsbergis, a member of the European Parliament and former president of Lithuania, stressed at meeting in Tallinn the necessity of continued active cooperation among Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, putting special emphasis on the security of energy supplies.
"The cooperation of the three Baltic States plays a key role especially in finding alternatives for energy supply that would reduce our region's dependence energy-wise on other regions," Paet said.
The minister and Landsbergis discussed also matters relating to the enlargement of the EU and Landsbergis gave Paet an overview of recent debates on this topic in the European Parliament.
Paet and Landsbergis expressed concern over the worsening of the situation in Belarus and condemned disregard for democratic principles shown by Belarusian leaders.
"Using force against a presidential candidate and his supporters is impermissible," the foreign minister said.
The Lithuanian MEP today read at the Foreign Ministry a lecture on the relations between the Baltic States and Russia.
FM: Montenegro Has Right to Independence Referendum
Feb 27 - Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said it's a constitutional right of Montenegro to hold an independence referendum.
Paet made the statement at the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels where the recent developments in the Western Balkans were discussed. Paet underlined that the independence referendum was Montenegro's constitutional right. "But to find a satisfactory political solution and preserve regional stability it is also necessary that both Serbia and Montenegro are ready to hold constructive talks about the future," he added. Paet also underlined that Serbia would have to show that it was seriously interested in cooperation with ICTY ITCY, as it was the basis for further talks with the EU.
Touching on the recently begun talks over the status of Kosovo, the ministers underlined the importance of the observation of standards and appealed to local governments to strengthen efforts in their implementation, above all in the protection of minorities.
Addressing recent developments in Iraq, the foreign policy leaders appealed to all Iraqi political and religious leaders to end violence and to show mutual respect and underline the need of urgent formation of the government.
Paet expressed the hope that the new prime minister and government would be able to lay a basis to democratic and stable Iraq.
"All the ethnic and religious groups should be represented in the government; this would contribute to greater mutual understanding," he said.
At the General Affairs Council the ministers discussed the current state of talks over the financial perspective and prepared for the European Council to take place in March, of which the main focus will be paid to the Lisbon process and the European Union's energy policy.
FOREIGN NEWS
Estonian FM Expresses Concern Over Belarus situation
Mar 3 - The Estonian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Belarus ahead of the March 19 presidential election in a statement issued today.
The Belarusian authorities have ignored recommendations of international organizations and have not ensured a democratic and free pre-election campaign, the ministry noted with regret. The ministry condemns the ignoring of principles of democracy and human rights in Belarus.
"We watch with concern detention of election activists and local independent observers, and the obstruction of the activity of free press and political public meetings," the statement said. The ministry voiced deep regret over presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin and a group of his supporters being detained by force on March 2.
The Ministry called on the Belarusian authorities to fulfil all the commitments undertaken by the country as a member state of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and United Nations, and ensure the security of all presidential candidates before, during and after the elections.
The Ministry expressed support for the development of a democratic society in Belarus.
DEFENCE NEWS
Estonian Defence Forces to Set Up Professional Military Police Unit
Mar 2 - The Estonian Defence Forces will set up a military police platoon of professional soldiers; the unit will be despatched to missions in the composition of the NATO Response Force (NRF). To be assigned to the NATO Response Force, the platoon will be in constant readiness to leave on missions when needed. The platoon will be of 32 men.
By the beginning of 2007, the new unit must be ready. Lieutenant Sarapuu said a traffic group as well as security group of professional soldiers had already been set up, their main duties being respectively traffic supervision in the Defence Forces and providing security to high-ranking officers and defence ministers arriving for visits to Estonia.
The Defence Forces have set up military police units of professional soldiers before but they were units intended for a concrete mission. The NATO Response Force was established in 2003 as a unit integrating naval, land and air capabilities, and performing duties of the North Atlantic Council. The intended full personnel capacity of NRF has to be achieved by this autumn when it will have total personnel strength of 21,000.
Estonian Defence Forces Chaplain to Coordinate Chaplain's Activity in Bosnia
Mar 1 - Chaplain of the Estonian Defence forces Lt. Col. Taavi Laanepere will be co-ordinating the activity of other countries' chaplains in Bosnia and Herzegovina during his six-month mission.
Laanepere is posted as senior chaplain at the headquarters of the European Union's military unit. Lt. Col. Laanepere's main duty at the mission will be to coordinate activity of other countries' chaplains and communicate with local religious leaders.
Laanepere will be the first Estonian Defence Forces chaplain to be posted as senior chaplain. Earlier they have served as personnel officers in Kosovo and made visits to Iraq when required.
"Different countries have a different structure of the Chaplain Service and it is often necessary to achieve cooperation between them, which is not always simple," Laanepere said. EUFOR is the European Union's military unit set up to keep peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to European Union member countries there are also soldiers from the armed forces of Albania, Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Switzerland and Turkey serving in EUFOR.
DOMESTIC NEWS
Three New Radar Systems to be Erected at Estonia's Eastern Border
Mar 1 - The Estonian Interior Ministry has announced this year three international public procurement tenders to acquire up-to-date detection and surveillance systems for the eastern border. The first, unmanned radar system along with a system of different cameras will be built on the Terepniki Peninsula to guard Lammijärv, the narrow channel linking Lakes Peipsi and Pskov, Peep Eerme, speaking for the Interior Ministry state property department, told BNS. The radar system of a 14-kilometer radius of operation will be part of the future Lammijärv surveillance system. The radar system must be able to detect a person walking on ice or a small rubber dinghy even in difficult weather conditions.
The second radar system, similar to the first one, will be erected on a tower of 35 meters to be built about 9.5 kilometers from the Narva River estuary.
The third tender will be held for the creation of an integrated mainland surveillance system in the South - Eastern sector of the border in the Piusa border post area. The system must be able to detect, observe and identify objects in a four-kilometer stretch of the border.
The deadlines for bids are respectively on March 15, 28 and 29. Together with the radars bidders in the tender must also provide training and ensure maintenance of the equipment during a fixed period of time.
Eerme said: All the biggest surveillance system manufacturers would be making bids in the tender. The total cost of the three systems will be approximately 55 million kroons (EUR 3.5 mln), and the three systems must be handed over and functional by the end of the year.
The surveillance systems to be acquired with the support of the Schengen Facility program are intended for bringing the standards of guarding and border control into line with the Schengen requirements. Estonia should accede to the Schengen legal space in 2007.
ECONOMIC NEWS
The Economist Ranks Estonia 12th by 2006 Economic Growth
Feb 27 - Estonia ranks as 12th among world countries in terms of gross domestic product growth states magazine The Economist. Ahead of Estonia are Azerbaijan, Angola, Georgia, Qatar, Turkmenistan, China, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Libya, Armenia and Latvia.
At the bottom of the scoreboard is Zimbabwe whose economy is expected to decrease by 4 percent. The Economist forecasts economic growth of less than 2 percent for countries such as Portugal, Italy, Malta,
Germany, Britain and Switzerland.
Nearly Two Million Tourists Stayed Overnight in Estonia Last Year
Feb 28 - As many as 1.9 million tourists stayed overnight in Estonia during 2005, nine percent more than in the preceding year, a fresh survey by the Tourism Development Centre of the Enterprise Estonia Foundation indicates. As compared with 2004, the rate of increase in the number of tourists grew the fastest in tourists coming from Germany, Britain and Russia. Growth was also remarkable, albeit a bit slower than in 2004, in the number of tourists coming from Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain.
1.45 million tourists stayed overnight in an accommodation enterprise while 450,000 stayed free of charge at relatives or acquaintances, in an apartment of their own or in a summer cottage.
The number of tourists staying at accommodation enterprises grew by six percent or by nearly 79,000 people compared with 2004.
Owing to the longer stay of tourists, the number of overnight stays at accommodation enterprises grew nine percent, a little faster than the number of accommodated tourists. Still faster, or 12 percent year on year, was the increase in accommodation enterprises' -income from the sale of accommodation services.
Tourism grew 5.5 percent worldwide last year, according to tentative data by the World Tourism Organization.
Currency Rates in Kroons
March 5, 2006
British pound - GBP - 22.816
Canadian dollar - CAD - 11.476
Swiss franc - CHF - 10.014
Danish krone - DKK - 2.096
Japanese yen - JPY - 0.112
Latvian lat - LVL - 22.487
Lithuanian lit - LTL - 4.531
Norwegian krone - NOK - 1.952
Russian rouble - RUB - 0.466
Swedish krona - SEK - 1.656
US dollar - USD - 13.020
Euro - EUR - 15.647
CULTURAL NEWS
Estonian FM Appeals for Closer Cooperation Between Ministry and Artist's Unions
Mar 1 - Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, meeting with leaders of the country's Artist's Unions, organizations uniting artists, writers, publishers, musicians, theatre, film and museum people, called them for closer cooperation with the ministry in order to improve promotion of Estonian culture abroad.
Paet said the Creative Unions could cooperate with the cultural office of the Foreign Ministry, a well as the wide network of Estonian foreign missions and Honorary Consuls, who can be of assistance in spreading the information about Estonian culture abroad and establishment of the necessary contacts.
Paet said: "The more we exchange information with each other, the better we can systematize work on the propagation of Estonian culture in foreign countries and give to Estonian artistic people more opportunities of showing their work abroad"
Leaders of the creative unions admitted also during the meeting with the Minister and representatives of the Foreign Ministry cultural bureau that although cooperation with Embassies and particularly cultural attaches had been very good, contacts could be even closer.
With the mediation of the cultural bureau within the press and information department of the ministry, Estonian foreign missions organize various activities introducing Estonian culture in the respective countries.
Last year Estonian Foreign Representations organized or supported nearly a hundred cultural events. Resources of the cultural bureau, which has a budget of 700,000 kroons (EUR 44,700), were used to carry out a total of 62 exhibitions, concerts, literary evenings or other activities.
The cultural bureau also supported participation in film festivals, translation of books and movies, organization of a conference dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of Andres Dido and tidying up Dido's grave in France.
Many cultural events abroad took place in connection with the 87th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia and state and working visits of President Arnold Rüütel to Portugal, Latvia, Russia and China.
Concerts in Germany and Belgium connected with the anniversaries of the composers Arvo Part and Veljo Tormis were also supported.
SPORTS NEWS
Thousands of Fans Welcomed Home Estonia's Olympic Winners
Feb 27 - Thousands of fans welcomed home Estonian Olympic winners Kristina Šmigun, Andrus Veerpalu, and their coaches Anatoli Šmigun, and Mati Alaver.
President Arnold Rüütel and Mrs Ingrid Rüütel congratulated the Olympic winners, with the president laying laurel wreaths on their shoulders. Rüütel mentioned growth of skiing enthusiasm, young people starting to train seriously with Olympic Games as an aim and greater eagerness and a sense of cohesion in the country.
Kristina Šmigun said that her two medals belonged to everyone and appealed to young people to take more exercise. "It's worth it, it makes sense to exert yourself," she said.
EESTI RINGVAADE is compiled from local news services, including BNS, and is issued by the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Eesti Ringvaade is also available through the Internet at http://www.vm.ee
To subscribe please contact: vmpress@vm.ee
 
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