BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

2011 state budget will support economy’s return to growth : Prime Minister Ansip

Riigikogu – Prime Minister Andrus Ansip called next year’s budget a “new growth budget” that focuses on improving the economic climate without unravelling the social fabric.

“Step by step, we are moving past the exit phase of the crisis and toward the first stage of new growth,” said the head of government in a political statement to the Riigikogu. “By keeping our economic environment productive, we will be able to make the transition from crisis to new economic growth. New jobs, an increase in pensions, services for families with children, security and a Nordic level of education – all of these depend on it. A functional, successful economy is an essential part of all of these positive changes,” said Ansip.

Although the European Commission forecasted that Estonia would have the European Union’s highest economic growth in 2011, Ansip said the crisis was not over. “The rest of the world may see a bright future for us, but only we can make it a reality,” said Ansip.

”Unfortunately, the effects of the worst economic crisis of the past 80 years will be felt by the world for years to come. Yet the recovery of confidence on export markets and among local entrepreneurs gives us hope for the spring in regard to the economy,” said the prime minister, who said Estonia would have many advantages over other countries if it practices sound management. “We do not have to pay back huge government debts; instead we can direct that money toward new economic growth,” said Ansip, who noted that the Estonian economy was considered one of the more sustainable ones in the European Union.

Fluoride imbalances in Estonia's drinking water lead to tooth decay

A recent doctoral dissertation at the University of Tartu finds that drinking water for more than half of Estonia’s residents lacks fluoride, leading to tooth decay among children. Other areas have an overabundance of fluoride, which is dangerous for children under two years of age.

Ene Indermitte, an environmental health researcher at the University of Tartu, has measured the level of fluoride in towns across the country since 2000. Water quality standards permit fluoride content up to 1.5 milligrams per liter. Even a small excess quantity can have negative health impacts, but the highest measurement discovered by Indermitte was a startling 6.95 milligrams per liter.

In areas with high fluoride contamination in drinking water, 80 percent of 12-year-olds showed signs of fluorosis, a condition caused by excessive exposure and marked by discoloration in teeth.

"Fluorosis of the teeth is a very serious illness; it causes permanent damage to the tooth’s enamel," said Indermitte. "In the beginning it’s just unattractive. [There are] ugly spots, tarnished teeth and stains. But micro-cracks emerge after a while and teeth can even fall out."

In search of jackboots

Integration: Pursuing an explanation for Estonia’s chronic negative image in the western press.

The Exam

On a snowy Sunday in February I sat in a classroom in Pae Gymnasium. Motivated by a desire to vote in local elections, I had registered for Estonia’s B1 language exam. It’s a bit unjust, I’d always thought, that a European citizen, who speaks not a word of Estonian and understands not a single issue, is entitled to vote in local elections. Yet an American, who speaks the language more or less fluently and legally resides in the country, must pass a language exam. But the law is the law, and so I took the exam to prove my proficiency in the Estonian language. 

And so, in my assigned classroom, I sat at a student’s desk surrounded by mostly native Russian speakers, as two proctors explained the rules of the exam in deliberate Estonian. Instructions given, I was ordered to remove my bag from the desktop, silence was requested, and the first part of the exam was begun.

Only a few minutes into the exam, the student in front of me turned 180 degrees in his chair to ask me in a conversational volume for assistance in answering an exam question. A bit struck by his audacity, I suggested in the same volume that he ask the proctor. If the proctors noticed us, they gave no sign. A few minutes later, the student on my right produced crib notes which he shielded from view with his hand. What was he cribbing from I wondered, since the exam required you to write a letter to a friend describing what you did on New Year’s Eve? How specific could his crib notes possibly have been?

Estonia's elite four times poorer

TALLINN - The total wealth of Estonia's 500 richest people has fallen by a multiple of four over the past year, a recent list compiled by Estonian-language daily Aripaev has found.

The total wealth of the people on the list had fallen by 11 billion kroons compared to last year.

The paper noted that the change is a sign that the economy is balancing out as the "get-rich-quick" businessmen drop off the list.

Fewer suckers at Narva area festival

Lamprey populations have been dwindling in the Narva River, but the town at the river's mouth did not let that get in the way of its annual tribute to the jawless, scaleless marine creature.

The lower lamprey catch mainly meant that there was less food to go around at the Narva-Jõesuu Lamprey Festival over the weekend of September 25-26. Supplies of the cabbage soup with lamprey, a local speciality, ran low after just an hour at the festival over the weekend, according to the news program Aktuaalne Kaamera.

Festival-goers also made their way to the harbor in search of fresh lamprey but supplies were low. Fishermen attribute the reason to the Narva hydro power plant on the Russian side. 

"Lampreys avoid polluted waters," said local fisherman Sergei Klessarev. "This matter should really be resolved with Russia."

Narva-Jõesuu is famous for its European smelts in spring and lamprey in fall, but catches of both species are down.

Tallinn Airport to get 56 million kroons from the state

The state has agreed to spend 56 million kroons on increasing security in the Tallinn Airport and adding international flights in 2011, reported ERR, quoting a statement by the ministy of economic affairs that oversees the aviation sector.

In addition, the state will allocated 9 million kroons for modernising regional airports.

Until now these costs were borne by Tallinn Airport itself.

At the beginning of September, the Estonian government approved the re-acquisition of Estonian Air. The government has proposed to MPs to allocate 17.9 million euros from finance ministry funds to the economy ministry to recapitalize Estonian Air by which the state will acquire a majority holding in the company.

Toomas Hõbemägi

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28% of Estonians claim proficiency in English

For a tourist walking around in Tallinn, it might seem like everyone in the country speaks English perfectly. A new Eurostat study finds that 28 percent of Estonians consider themselves experienced speakers and 13.6 percent say they speak none at all.

The most-spoken second language in Estonia was English, while in Latvia and Lithuania it was Russian. In Estonia, the official national was itself a third language for 21 percent of primary school students in 2008.

The EU country with the highest percentage of proficient foreign-language speakers was Latvia (55 percent), followed by Slovenia (45 percent), Slovakia (44 percent), Lithuania (41.6 percent), Sweden (39.3 percent) and Estonia.

The countries with the lowest percentage of proficient speakers were France (5.1 percent), Romania (5.2 percent), Italy (6 percent), Poland (6.2 percent), Bulgaria (6.5 percent), UK (7.4 percent) and the Czech Republic (7.5 percent).

The study defined foreign language proficiency as the “ability to understand and produce a wide range of demanding texts and use the language flexibly.”

“Roma” sounds like “scrap carts” in Estonian

In Estonian media the word “Roma” is increasingly used instead of the Estonian word “mustlane” (Gypsies) for reasons of political correctness.

Not a particularly wise choice, the daily Postimees concludes:

“The word simply doesn’t sound good in Estonian, particularly in spoken language and with the appropriate declension endings. It brings to mind ‘romu’ [scrap carts], ‘roomamine’ [creepers] or ‘rohmakus’ [recklessness]. … It’s true that we sometimes hear that the members of this minority who live in Estonia prefer to be called ‘Roma’, and after all this is the official synonym. But it should not be forgotten that in Estonian the word ‘Gypsy’ has no negative connotations and this has been confirmed by the linguists at the Estonian Language Institute.”

Euro will cost Bank of Estonia millions

A report finds that the transition to the euro will cost the Bank of Estonia around 13 million euros, the majority of which will help build up a reserve.

However, the bank will not say how much it will cost to manufacture the coinage. "It’s a trade secret," Bank of Estonia press representative Viljar Rääsk told uudised.err.ee.

While new change will be produced specifically for Estonia, the cash made available beginning January 1, 2011 will be borrowed from the European Central Bank. In 2012, the Bank of Estonia will return the paper money it loaned for reserves and print its own, said Ingvar Bärenklau, the Ministry of Finance’s project coordinator for the currency transition.

Rääsk said that the bank will not publicize the cost of manufacturing bills either, adding that the price would vary from year-to-year, depending also on factors such as the cost of cotton. Printing would be expensive because Estonia’s order would be relatively small; for that reason, the Bank of Estonia will team up with other clients within the central banking system in its procurement.

Remnants of Medieval City gate discovered in Pärnu

Construction workers and archaeologists digging at the future site of Pärnu's history museum have unearthed remnants of a city gate, thought to date from the 13th or 14th century.

The workers discovered the gate's oak foundations and pillars, as well as a wooden walkway, during drainage works at the location.

In medieval times the gate would have been a vital city feature as the main artery for goods transported between the port to the city, Pärnu Museum director Aldur Vunk told Aktuaalne Kaamera.

The site was already under scrutiny by archaeologists because it contains the foundations of a historic grain warehouse. The archaeologists also knew of the gate's existence, but were surprised at the remarkably well preserved condition of the remains.

Museum experts must now decide how best to exhibit the gate fragments to the public.

The new museum facility is slated to open in February 2012.

Repatriation support bill Introduced to fight brain drain

The Centre Party has introduced a bill that would provide support for Estonians returning to live in the old country.

"The economic downturn and unemployment are making Estonian people look for opportunities beyond the country's borders,“ said member of the opposition party's fraction, Aivar Riisalu.

Riisalu said that University of Tartu demographic experts estimate that 130,000 Estonians live and work outside the country and that Estonia's population is falling by close to 20,000 a year. The situation is most critical in health care jobs, Riisalu said.

Among specific measures proposed in the draft Repatriation of Estonian Citizens Act is the opportunity for local governments to take loans to build municipal apartments for repatriating citizens.

The draft law also adds a provision to the Professional Education Institutions Act to give employers wage subsidies for hiring graduates of professional education.

Riisalu also said the bill would allow for better support of Estonian exporters and provide budgetary support for students to study Estonian language and culture abroad.

Swedish metal products manufacturer expands to Estonia

Swedish metal products manufacturer Mekanotjänst Industrier expanded its operations to Estonia by acquiring a former window plant in Ülenurme industrial park in Tartu and re-equipping it to process sheet metal, reported News2biz.

The company bought the plant of the busted window maker Felistra in the beginning of the year from the receivership. The plant is almost brand new – Estonian-owned Felistra only erected it before going bankrupt in 2009. According to the bankruptcy trustee, the assets changed hands for 12 million kroons.

One's bad timing while making an investment decision may however turn onto another's luck. "We already planned to expand outside Sweden, and eyed Tartu in Estonia as a likely site. Then, this excellent opportunity came," says Christer Fransson, CEO of the newly established Mekanotjänst Baltic.

According to Fransson, the profile of the Tartu plant will be similar to that of the Swedish metal processing plant. "Sheet metal processing, milling operations, and, in some extent, assembly," he says.

The plant, currently equipped and planned to be launched in October, will mostly produce for exports.

Estonia has `few tools' to control inflation : Ansip

Estonia, told by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet to remain “alert” on inflation after adopting the euro next year, has “few tools” to control price increases, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said.

Inflation expectations in the Baltic nation of 1.3 million people are rising because of an increase in food and fuel prices and concern euro membership will boost prices.

“The government has few tools at its disposal to contain Inflation,” Ansip said in an interview during a visit to the Latvian capital Riga on Sept. 24. “The budget is practically the only instrument. A small and open economy like ours can’t avoid the pain with outside price pressures.”

The European Union in July approved the country’s application to adopt the bloc’s common currency next year. Trichet said Sept. 20 that Estonia must remain “alert” on price developments and take “forceful” action to stem inflation after joining the euro-region economy.

Estonia’s Finance Ministry expects inflation to average 2.6 percent this year, while annual price growth may reach 4 percent by year-end. The ECB aims to keep prices growth at less than 2 percent.

European shares rally on US data

European stocks reversed losses and staged a late rally on Friday, sparked by better-than-feared U.S. macro economic data that helped the market snap a three-day losing run and eke out a gain on the week.

Spain's tougher-than-expected 2011 budget also helped lift the mood, reassuring investors on the country's ability to deal with its debt.

Recently-hammered banks were among the top gainers, with Credit Agricole up 5 percent, SwedBank up 2.9 percent and Banco Santander up 2.8 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 1.2 percent higher at 1,078.15 points, gaining 0.5 percent on the week.

U.S. data showed on Friday new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods excluding transportation gained ground last month while business spending rebounded and the supply of houses on the market tumbled to the lowest level in 42 years, pointing to an improvement in the economy after a recent soft patch.

New TB vaccine enters clinical testing

Rockville, MD and Tallinn – At an international gathering of TB vaccine researchers in Tallinn today, the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation announced it will initiate a clinical trial of an investigational live recombinant tuberculosis vaccine to be led by researchers at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The announcement was made at the Second Global Forum on TB Vaccine Development.

Building on more than a decade of global scientific research, Aeras scientists have engineered a new investigational vaccine, called AERAS-422, which will undergo clinical trials to evaluate its properties for interrupting TB at all stages of infection, including initial infection, latency and reactivation.

Moving our lead in-house vaccine from the laboratory into clinical testing is an important milestone for Aeras and its partners. Finding a potential replacement for the currently available TB vaccine, which was invented almost 90 years ago, is a primary goal in our mission, said Thomas G. Evans, MD, Aeras Chief Scientific Officer. Based on data from pre-clinical studies, we are cautiously optimistic about the potential of this vaccine candidate to be safer and more immunogenic than the currently available vaccine.

International gang recruited Estonian for jewellery raids

An Estonian criminal recruited by an international gang to carry out three armed robberies at high class jewellers in Britain, including one in Yorkshire, has been jailed for 12 years.

Joonas Jarvsoo helped snatched designer watches worth £670,000 in gunpoint raids at Berry's in Leeds city centre and two other jewellers in Manchester and Wolverhampton over a 10-month period in 2006 and 2007.

He was traced through his DNA found on items left behind by the robbers and is the fifth gang member to be sentenced.

None of the watches including models by Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Franck Muller and Cartier has ever been recovered.

Jarvsoo was extradited from Finland under a European arrest warrant earlier this year after completing a three-year sentence there for a jewellery robbery which is believed to have been organised by the same gang.

Yesterday the 28-year-old admitted three charges of robbery and three of possessing imitation firearms with intent to commit robbery.

Estonia's number 11 to 25 richest businessmen

Find out who were ranked by Äripäev 11th to 25th by their personal wealth.

(11) Urmas Sõõrumaa: 1.28 billion kroons
Sõõrumaa who has regularly paid himself some of the largest dividends this year decided to re-invest everything back in his businesses. Äripäev has included in his wealth his ownership in Signaal estimated at 123 million kroons although Sõõrumaa denies being the owner of the secretive Swiss company that bought Signaal.

(12) Marcel Vichmann: 1.24 billion kroons
Vichmann's real worth is hard to estimate since last year he and his business partner artificially increased the value of the building at Rävala 8 and the property at central railway station. He owns rail passenger and bus transport companies, real estate developers and timber traders. His lost a lot of money in Gild's venture capital fund and invested unsuccessfully in Azerbaidjan.

(13) Anatoli Kanajev: 1. 24 billion kroons
A third of Kanajev's wealth is in cash. This may be the reason why he is one of the few who managed to increase his value in a year. He made most of his money by shipping oil from Russia through Muuga port to Europe. He is locked in bitter fight with his former business partner Endel Siff.

(14) Igor Izraeljan: 1.1 billion kroons
Izraeljan started his business 19 years ago by trading plywood from an apartment in Lasnamäe. In addition to timber business he also owns a leasing company ALG Liising.

(15) Mihhail Gnidin: 1.04 billion kroons
Third-largest shareholder of BLRT Group and is also in opposition with the company's controlling shareholder Feodor Berman.

Government approves 2011 state budget

The government has approved the draft state budget for 2011 and sent it to the Riigikogu for deliberation. Expenses for next year are planned to amount to 94.2 billion kroons, which is 4 billion kroons more than this year and will be funded by revenue from the sale of excess pollution allowances as well as by foreign financing.

Revenue amounts to 89.4 billion kroons. The budget deficit for next year is 3.8 billion kroons, which is 1.6% of the Estonian gross domestic product. The goal of the state is to bring revenue and expenditure in the budget into balance as soon as possible. The state budget should be in balance by no later than 2013.

A moratorium has been imposed on increases to government’s operating costs. In addition, the government has in principle decided not to introduce raises for the public sector next year. The government is proposing to the Riigikogu that wages for senior public servants be frozen until 2012.

The state budget plans for 15.5 billion kroons of foreign financing to Estonia, which is one billion kroons more than this year. Related co-financing of such assistance amounts to 1.3 billion kroons.

Investments will reach an all-time high as a percentage of next year’s budget. The state plans to invest 16 billion kroons, which is 16 percent or 2.4 billion kroons more than this year. The main emphasis of the investments is trained on the transport and logistics sector, which will receive 6.336 billion kroons in appropriations next year.

Passenger traffic between Finland and Estonia continues to grow

Ferry passenger numbers on other routes indicate decline.

In the summer of 2010, numbers of passengers on the ships sailing from Helsinki and Turku declined, with the exception of the route between Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallinn. Thanks to the Tallinn service, the total number of passengers increased by 250,000 from last year.

The steepest decline in passenger service was experienced on Tallink’s route from Finland to Germany. The passenger numbers of the Estonian-owned shipping company fell by 20 per cent on the Helsinki-Rostock route over the period from June through August, when compared with the corresponding period last year.

The Helsinki-Rostock ferries carried almost 10,000 fewer cruise passengers than in the summer of 2009.

In the spring, the shipping company hesitated for a long time on whether or not it would resume passenger service to Germany in the summer. This added to the decline in the number of ferry passengers: the late decision to start traffic between Finland and Germany led to a decline in bookings.

”Many had already chosen some other routes”, regrets Vice President Pasi Näkki of Tallink Silja.

However, Tallink plans to offer ferry services between Finland and Germany next summer as well.