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Estonian Review: December 26-January 08, 2006 
12.01.2006
TOP NEWS
FOREIGN NEWS
DEFENCE NEWS
DOMESTIC NEWS
ECONOMIC NEWS
CULTURAL NEWS
SPORTS NEWS
TOP NEWS
Estonia has more naturalized than stateless residents
Jan 03 - For the first time after the restoration of independence the number of naturalized residents surpassed that of stateless persons in 2005.
According to data of the Population Minister's office over 138,000 people had received citizenship by naturalization in Estonia and there were around 136,000 stateless residents in the country.
Citizenship by naturalization was granted to 7,072 people in the outgoing year. Last year 6,523 people and in the year before last 3,706 people became Estonian citizens.
Population Minister Paul-Eerik Rummo said that application for Estonian citizenship had gathered pace after Estonia's accession to the European Union. He found that the factors speeding up application for citizenship included full covering of expenses made to study the official language, publication of the Citizen's Handbook, the possibility to take the respective exams at schools and preparation of people for citizenship exams with EU support.
The Population Minister said that he could see no need for any amendments in the Citizenship Act. "All figures and the practice shows that the pace of application for citizenship has been stable and growing in the past few months," Rummo said.
He added that the only amendment that could be made to the act would be to increase the number of people granted citizenship for special services.
The government's integration programme action plan calls for naturalizing at least 5,000 persons annually during the years 2004-2007.
Estonian research institute forecasts continued strong economic growth
Jan 06 - The Estonian Institute of Economic Research (EKI) predicts economic growth of 8 percent, a 3.8 percent rise in the consumer price index and 14 percent increase in exports for the current year.
The current account deficit is seen to form 8.5 percent of gross domestic product. Industrial output is expected to grow 9 percent, retail sales 8 percent and the volume of construction 9 percent.
EKI estimates that unemployed jobseekers will number 20,000, monthly wages average 8,800 kroons (EUR 562) and real wages rise by 6 percent in 2006. Senior researcher Leev Kuum said the country's economy is healthy and its state comparable to the situation three months earlier. In his words, accession to the European Union turned out to have a bigger impact on Estonia than anticipated.
Estonian prosecutors close case of WWII crime suspect
Dec 30 - Estonian State Prosecutor's Office has closed a criminal case against Harry Männil, an Estonian businessman who has lived in Venezuela for most of the post-WWII period, over crimes allegedly committed by him during the Nazi occupation of Estonia.
The director of the Jerusalem office of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Efraim Zuroff, had accused Männil of persecuting and killing civilians during the German occupation.
Estonia's security police opened a criminal case in March 2001 on the basis of Zuroff's petition to investigate whether Männil was connected with the persecution and killing of civilians in 1941-42 when he worked as an assistant with the wartime political police in Tallinn.
Security police officers, who examined thousands of pages of materials in German and other countries' archives and interviewed dozens of witnesses, have not found any proof linking Männil to crimes against humanity.
In spring 2005 the security police drew up a resolution on closing the Männil case and sent it to the State Prosecutor's Office for endorsement.
FOREIGN NEWS
Estonia supports Afghanistan's Counter Narcotics Trust Fund and the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund
Dec 28 - At the end of last year, the Foreign Ministry decided to support Afghanistan's (Counter Narcotics Trust Fund - CNTF) with a charitable donation worth 50,000 USD and the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund - CERF with 24,000 USD.
The European Union has named the fight against narcotics as one of its political priorities directed at Afghanistan, noted Foreign Minister Paet.
Estonia is a contributor to this fund, because the war against narcotics is not confined to national boundaries, added the Foreign Minister.
DEFENCE NEWS
Estonian Reconnaissance Unit Headed to Denmark for pre-mission training
Jan 05 - An Estonian reconnaissance unit, BALTSQN-13, headed by Capt. Mait Müürisepp, left for nearly a month's training in Denmark.
The soldiers are undergoing training with a Danish unit in whose ranks the Estonian contingent will serve during the peacekeeping mission to Kosovo.
While 72 troops are undergoing training in Denmark, 66 soldiers will take part in the mission starting in mid-February. The remaining soldiers will be left in reserve.
The three Baltic States are taking turns six months at a time to man the BALTSQN reconnaissance unit deployed as part of a Danish battalion with the KFOR Multinational Brigade Northeast. The Estonian unit to serve there most recently, BALTSQN-10, returned home in February.
DOMESTIC NEWS
Amendment to the Aliens Act entered into force 1 January 2006
Jan 01 - An amendment to the Aliens Act entered into force, pursuant to which an alien may be granted a single entry short-term visa to enter Estonia for a period of up to five calendar days with the purpose of making use of a tourist service or an entertainment service in case the visa applicant's economic situation enables him or her to bear the costs of his or her stay in Estonia and the costs of his or her leaving the country.
Upon issuance of a visa, the Estonian mission shall evaluate the applicant's economic situation. The border guard shall control if the applicant has the sufficient means to provide for his or her stay in the country. As of 1 January 2006, the sum per one day shall be 600 EEK.
An invitation is still required of those who plan on visiting a friend or relative residing in Estonia, for business or other reasons not mentioned above.
Estonia to put vital records from last 80 years into electronic database
Jan 04 - The Interior Ministry will have vital statistics documents from the past 80 years entered into a digital database.
On Jan. 3, the Andmevara Company started entering data from paper carriers, Andmevara's Marketing Director Jörgen Sumin said.
All of Estonia's 15 county governments, the cities of Tallinn, Tartu and Narva as well as the Interior Ministry will take part in the project over the next two years.
About 100 people will be involved in the project. In all some 4.3 million vital records will be entered into the database, including birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and divorce certificates.
As a result, archive documents dating from the year 1926 and later will be available in a digital environment, enabling officials to offer faster service and cut down on paperwork.
Cilja Laud put in charge of ethnic minorities' education
Jan 06 - The Estonian Education and Science Ministry has set up a separate department to deal with issues of ethnic minorities' education, with Cilja Laud in charge of the department.
Laud, a member of the president's ethnic minorities round table and former head of the Estonian Jewish Community, is a graduate of the Leningrad State Institute of Culture.
A spokesman for the ministry said one of the main duties of the ethnic minorities' department is to prepare Russian-medium secondary schools for transition to partial instruction in Estonian as of autumn 2007.
The duties of the department will be to map and implement formation of the ethnic minorities' linguistic and cultural identity and an education policy supporting their integration into the society by creating the suitable legal space and planning the necessary resources.
ECONOMIC NEWS
Estonian government determined to preserve tax environment favourable to business
Jan 05 - The Cabinet approved a list of Estonia's goals during the period of Austria's presidency of the European Union and decided to send it to the parliamentary European Affairs committee to await its stance.
Estonia's goals for the first half of 2006 focus on the improvement of Estonia and Europe's competitiveness.
During the Austrian Presidency, Estonia plans to initiate an amendment of the EU's Parent-Subsidiary Directive in order to preserve a tax environment supportive of corporate investment following the end of the transition period.
Estonia wishes the EU to go on rapidly with the opening of the services market. The goal is to achieve adoption and implementation of the services' framework directive as quickly as possible. That would make the EU business environment simpler for providers of services and boost economic growth and the creation of new jobs, thus significantly improving the functioning of one of the EU's main freedoms, the Estonian government finds.
Cabinet members expressed hope that the Estonian parliament will ratify the EU constitutional treaty during the first half of 2006. The government also will continue preparations for adopting the euro and joining the Schengen space.
Tallinn Airport: 40 percent passenger growth in 2005
Jan 02 - The number of passengers passing through Tallinn Airport increased by 40.5 percent in 2005, and exceeded one million passengers for the first time.
A total of 1.4 million passengers passed through the Tallinn Airport last year. The year before the number fell 2,500 short of one million.
Freight Turnover increased by 110 percent to 9.1 million tons in 2005. The amount of mail carriage declined by 5.6 percent to 836,000 kilograms.
In a year the airport made 33,610 flight operations, 19.4 percent more than in 2004.
Estonia's Elion reports 40 percent growth in number of broadband Internet connections
Jan 05 - The number of broadband Internet connections of the Estonian telecommunications company Elion, part of the Eesti Telekom concern, grew last year by more than 40 percent to 108,000. Broadband Internet access has arrived in all Estonian towns and more than 1,000 villages, the company said.
Toivo Praakel, Elion's Internet and data communications network director, said the area covered by the firm's broadband connections increased by more than one-fifth in 2005.
Number of domain names ending in .ee grows by 10,000 in 2005
Jan 05 - During the past year 10,234 domain names ending in .ee were registered in the server of the Estonian Educational and Research Network (EENet), bringing the total to 35,884 by the beginning of 2005.
The head of EENet's customer services department, Anne Mardimäe, said that since the beginning of this year 138 new web addresses ending in .ee have already been registered. The agency has currently 886 running data communications contracts.
"Comparing the overall number of domain names with that of businesses registered in Estonian counties, it appears that an estimated 30 percent of Estonian firms are already using an .ee web address," Mardimäe added. In her words, companies usually pick for their domain name the firm's name, or a word denoting their business or trademark. Starting from Dec. 7, 2005 it was also possible to apply for a new domain name ending in .eu.
Consumer prices rise 4.1 percent in Estonia in 2005
Jan 06 - Estonia's consumer price index rose 4.1 percent in 2005 compared with the average for 2004, the Statistical Office reports.
Prices of goods climbed 4.0 percent, including a 3.7 percent rise in foodstuffs and 4.3 percent in manufactured goods. Prices of services rose 4.2 percent.
The CPI was last year mainly influenced by a rise in the prices of motor fuel and an increase in housing expenses, the Statistical Office observed.
Currency Rates in Kroons
January 08, 2005
British pound - GBP - 22.730
Canadian dollar - CAD - 11.088
Swiss franc - CHF - 10.125
Danish krone - DKK - 2.097
Japanese yen - JPY - 0.111
Latvian lat - LVL - 22.484
Lithuanian lit - LTL - 4.532
Norwegian krone - NOK - 1.972
Russian rouble - RUB - 0.450
Swedish krona - SEK - 1.678
US dollar - USD - 12.943
Euro - EUR - 15.647
CULTURAL NEWS
Estonian Endowment of culture presents awards
Jan 07 - The Estonian Endowment of culture has awarded grants to nominees for their achievements and promotion of Estonian society and culture at home and abroad in 2005. The organization's council annually issues awards amounting to 100,000 kroons to the winners of this grant.
The winners are divided into different categories including: Folklore, where the award was given to one of Estonia's outstanding choir conductors, Olev Oja; in Acting, the awards were given to Mari-Liis Küla, Liina Pihlak, Aime Unt, Liina Unt, Mari Tuuling and Andres Tali who have produced a book about the history of Estonian theatre; Paul-Eerik Rummo won the award in literature for his book entitled "Kogutud Luule"; Composer Eino Tamberg won the Music category for his teaching of music and lifelong contribution to musical Arts; Jaan Tults was awarded in the category of Physical Culture and Sports for his contribution to Estonian rowing sport. Tarmo Luisk received the award in Art and Design for his contributions to the exhibition of Industrial Art, in Architecture, Pekka Vapaavuori for designing the new KUMU art museum in such a way so as to incorporate it into the surrounding landscape; and finally in Film, to Hardi Volmer, Arko Okk and Toomas Kall for Film of the year, "Pärnograafia".
SPORTS NEWS
Estonia's Šmigun a close second in Otepää world cup race
Jan 07 - Estonia's Kristiina Šmigun placed a close second in the World Cup women's Classic in Otepää.
She finished only 0.2 seconds behind the winner, Norway's Hilde Pedersen. It was the first time that the 41-year-old Norwegian has won a World Cup race. Justina Kowalczyk of Poland, who finished 19.1 seconds behind Pedersen, was third. It was her first time on the winner's podium in the World Cup series.
After the race, Šmigun said that she was not disappointed over her close defeat.
She said her athletic form was good and that she enjoyed the race thanks to very well prepared skis.
Šmigun praised the public in her hometown of Otepää and said that the World Cup race at home was for her comparable to the World Championships and the Olympic games.
Hilde Pedersen also praised the Otepää public who in her opinion were the best in the world.
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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