BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Tallink's new green Superstar goes disposable

By Sami Takala in Helsinki and Tallinn
      
      The Estonian shipping company Tallink’s brand new high-speed vessel, the M/S Superstar, started operating on the Helsinki-Tallinn route yesterday - Monday, after having arrived at its home port in Tallinn from the Italian Fincantieri shipyard last Wednesday.
      
The M/S Superstar is a new generation high-speed vessel that travels at a speed of 27.5 knots, which enables it to cover the distance between Tallinn and Helsinki in two hours, regardless of weather conditions, Tallink declares.
      Together with its sister ship Star, delivered in the spring of 2007, the new M/S Superstar will operate as the Tallink Shuttle service, a new passenger service concept combining fast and comfortable travel between the two capital cities.
      
According to Tallink, the bright green colour of its Shuttle vessels characterizes the environmental aspects of the ships. Both vessels consume less fuel, have modern technical solutions, and create much smaller waves compared to the smaller high-speed craft making the crossing.
      However, disposable plates and cups are being used in all restaurants and cafés, except in the à la carte restaurant and business lounge.
      Tallink’s Communications Manager Luulea Lääne explains that the use of disposables is part of the fast food restaurant concept.
      ”Nobody is wondering why people eat from paperboard boxes at McDonald’s, are they ?” argues Lääne, saying that the amount of daily waste aboard the M/S Superstar and other similar ships is some 7.5 cubic metres.

Carmen Kass & Jonas Mekas honored by U.S Baltic Foundation

***Carmen Kass was honored by the U.S.-Baltic Foundation at the USBF Gala Awards in Washington D.C last week.

Carmen was awarded a Baltic Image Enhancement Award. Filmaker Jonas Mekas, founder of the Film-Makers Cooperative was awarded with a Baltic Cultural Achievement Award.

Mekas once wrote : “Warhol seems to have incorporated all the transitoriness of things into his very aesthetics, and that’s why it seems to me that his cinema is really about the transitoriness of the medium and the transitory state of all things. About the transitoriness of all existence and all art.”

Ansip : Above all, a small country can offer trust to its foreign partners ..

Roosta – On April 21st, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip gave a speech at the Higher National Defence Course held for the 18th time in Roosta, where he stressed the importance of trust in the defence policy of a country.

When talking about the significant tasks of the Estonian national defence, the head of the government pointed out foreign missions. “It is very important for a small country to participate in international missions. With this, we show our dedication to the collective defence principle,” said the Prime Minister. He added: “During the period of restoration of independence, we have received a lot of help from our Western partners. Now that Estonia is ready to provide help on security, it is our moral duty to do so,” Ansip said.

The Prime Minister also noted that the country must fulfil its international promises, which, considering the drafting of the current negative state budget, would mean keeping the defence expenses at 1.8% of GDP. “A small country does not have much to give but trust, and promises must be kept,” said the Prime Minister.

When recalling the discussions on the foreign missions of the Alliance at the NATO summit, the Prime Minister stressed that Estonia supports the improvement of military and civil cooperation in mission regions, by all means. “It is not possible to make a difference in Afghanistan by military means alone, and it has not been attempted, either. The members of the Alliance have also invested in building the civil structure of the country, but the proportion of these investments must increase,” said the Prime Minister.

Since 1999, the Ministry of Defence has been organising Higher National Defence Courses for the managers of public, private and non-profit sector organisations with the purpose of establishing a clear picture of the aspects of security and defence policy. Almost 800 people have passed the courses.
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Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo briifinguruum
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf 
press@riik.ee 

Estonian central bank more than halves 2008 growth forecast to 2% !

But I rather feel somehow that it isn´t the end of it ....

TALLINN - The Estonian central bank more than halved its 2008 economic growth forecast to 2.0 percent on Wednesday, citing fears of a global slowdown and national factors, notably high inflation.

The move by the bank, which had been forecasting gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4.4 percent this year, followed a downgrade by the finance ministry.

The ministry two weeks ago slashed its forecast by nearly a third from 5.2 percent to 3.7 percent, on similar grounds.

Both cuts are the latest sign of rising jitters in the Baltic state, which has enjoyed years of robust economic growth since independence from the crumbling Soviet bloc in 1991.

Last year, the country's GDP grew 7.1 percent, after a national record of 11.2 percent in 2006 which was also the second-best rate in the entire EU.

'The Estonian economy is cooling faster than expected,' the central bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

'This has been caused by a less supportive external environment, which has brought slower external demand growth and a rise in commodity and food prices, as well as an increase in risk margins,' it said.

'In addition, the increasing uncertainty and high inflation have reduced domestic demand.'

Back ... !

.... after 10 days from some unexpected trip abroad, I shortly will be able to keep you informed again on all events in our country.

Meanwhile, enjoy May the 1st and the terrific weather .... Don´t envy Nice, I was there and it was cooler ... !

Shaan

Eurasian Secret Services daily review

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1535

REVIEW TOPICS :
Accused German linked to spy flap, Russian agent’s whereabouts unclear
Belarus KGB transfers detained US lawyer to state psychiatric hospital
Students offered Belarusian KGB head to play toys, not human destinies
Latvian parliament re-appoints Janis Kazocins as Constitution Protection Bureau chief for next term
Russian Defence Ministry not yet received any request from Chechen parliament regarding dismissal of Vostok commander

Accused German linked to spy flap, Russian agent’s whereabouts unclear

A German citizen charged with selling sensitive technology information to Russia is a key figure in a mysterious spy case involving a former Federal Space Agency official that jarred Russian-Austrian relations last year, The Moscow Times reports.
AIA reported last week that German authorities had charged a 44-year-old native of Bavaria with passing sensitive documents to “a member of a Russian intelligence service.”

Estonia adds to Woolfest

STUDENTS from Estonia will exhibit their own designs at this year’s Woolfest in Cockermouth.

A group of girls from the Leisi School, on the Estonian island of Saaremaa, sheared the sheep, made the yarn and knitted their own designs in preparation for the west Cumbrian event.

Youngsters from Cumbria will join the Estonian visitors on the catwalk for the fashion show.

June Hall, of the Wool Clip co-operative which organises Woolfest, said: “I have been working with historians and crafts people in Estonia and Lithuania since 2001.

“They have rediscovered their indigenous breed of short-tailed sheep and are reinventing their traditional craft skills using wool from these sheep in an attempt to preserve them.”

The Wool Clip is a Cumbria-based co-operative of sheep farmers, spinners and wool workers, which was set up to add value to local wool.

In its fourth year, Woolfest will be held on June 27 and 28 at Mitchell’s Lakeland Livestock Centre.

Ausra Kaveckiene, a designer from northern Lithuania, will display her latest wool collection and other exhibitors will travel from Norway, Finland and France.

There will also be wool experts from around the world. A new feature at this year’s Woolfest will be an auction of knitted sheep, with all proceeds going to Farm Africa – an international aid project to create sustainable farms.

For further details call 00 44 16974 78707 or see www.woolfest.co.uk

Moscow move on Georgia "provocative" : Estonia

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON - Russia may have seen NATO's recent refusal to put Georgia on a fast track to membership as a green light for its "provocative" move to strengthen ties with separatists in Georgia, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said on Friday.

Ilves, whose Baltic nation, like Georgia, was once part of the Soviet Union, praised Tbilisi for staying calm after a decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordering his government to set up legal links with neighboring Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"The Russian decree we think is provocative, counterproductive and ultimately wrong," Ilves, currently on a visit to the United States, said in an interview with Reuters after meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Estonia goes cyber "thanks" to occupation

In cooperation with BNS

DUBLIN – Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said in Dublin on Tuesday that Estonia became an e-country “thanks” to the Soviet occupation lasting nearly 50 years.

"When Estonian independence was restored in 1991, there was nothing to be done with the structures that the occupation regime left behind. Many of the features that are characteristic of normal countries, such as banks, were totally missing," Ilves said in his presentation at the Institute of European Affairs.

The foundation for Estonia's e-revolution was the “internetization” schools and the development of Internet banking, he said.

In Estonia today, 66 percent of the population uses the Internet, and more than half of households have a home computer, 90 percent of which are connected to the Internet.

The audience was very interested in Estonia's experiences with conducting e-elections and in the use of ID cards, as well as the possibility of using the e-tax board environment to file tax declarations.

Estonian EU fund absorption problems

In cooperation with BNS

TALLINN - Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said today that problems may arise in regards to projects using EU support in the previous finance period.

Ansip named projects such as the 43 million kroon (EUR 2.75 mln) labor market measures plan, the EmajogiRiver catchment basin water management project worth 700 million kroons, the construction of a breakwater in the port ofTallinnfor 371 million kroons, and the Kukruse road construction project budgeted at 590 million kroons.

In his words, it is not fully certain at this point that Estonia will manage to implement those projects and use up the EU funds.

Absorption of EU support is particularly important in the present economic cooling situation where utilization of EU monies would support the economy and by bringing extra taxes into the state budget.

Estonia has until the end of 2010 to distribute the EU support of the previous financing period.

Ansip at the same time pointed out that the overall situation with the absorption of EU funds is good: the state has used 80 percent of the allocated money.

Estonia can use European aid in the sum of more than 50 billion kroons in 2007-2013.