BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonia average monthly wages continues to rise

Estonia's average monthly gross wages increased from last year in the first quarter, data released by Statistics Estonia showed Wednesday.

The average monthly gross wages and salaries increased 4.5 percent year-on-year to EUR 792 in the first quarter. The latest growth was driven mainly by irregular bonuses and premiums. Wages increased for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Excluding irregular bonuses and premiums, the average monthly gross wages and salaries advanced 3.2 percent annually in the first quarter.

At the same time, the average hourly gross wages and salaries grew 2.3 percent from last year to EUR 4.87 during the quarter.

The agency said that the average monthly labor costs per employee rose 4.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, while the average hourly labor costs moved up by 1.8 percent.

Pärnu worries about shrinking population

Pärnu's population dropped by 700 people last year - not a huge amount for a resort town of 43,000, but the trend appears to be continuing and many of the leavers are young people and families.

Mayor Toomas Kivimägi said the main reason for the net decrease was the squeezed nursery schools and creches - which is often cited as a problem almost everywhere in Estonia.

He also noted that the beach town's affluent neighboring municipalities kept their childbirth benefits at the same level during the recession - as much as 300 or more euros - while Pärnu's fell to under 70 euros. 

Sauga, the municipality that has benefited the most from departing Pärnu residents, had a population of 2,450 in 1994 and today has around 4,000.

In Pärnu, money has been thrown at the problem, with a number of creche's increasing capacity by the year's end. Pärnu's childbirth benefit will also quadruple next year.

Kristopher Rikken

30th Tallinn Old Town Days open this weekend

The traditional annual Tallinn Old Town Days festival that takes place for the 30th year, opens this Saturday, on May 28, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

The motto of the festival is this year “A City with A Open Heart” and the festival is a part of the European Culture Capital year events.

The extensive programme of the festival includes performances of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra ERSO, chamber orchestra St.-Peterburg Symphonieta, Estonian police and border guard orchestra, pianist Rein Rannap, the folk group Svjata Vatra, Turkish group Baba Zula, theatres from Hungary and Korea and Royal OperaJazz.

Dozens of concerts, performances, fairs, lectures and excursions take place. International scope is added by theatre festival Tallinn Treff that brings theatres of many states to Tallinn.

The festival is divided into theme days: May 29 is the day of churches; May 30 is the day of sports; May 31 is theatre day; June 1 is children’s day; June 2 is music day, June 3 is museum day; June 4 features a knights tournament and flower ball and June 5 ends the festival with an ERSO concert at the Town Hall Square.

Port of Tallinn has new logo

The Port of Tallinn has been developing quickly, and therefore the port's operator's brand concept has been updated and presented to the public.

By now its activities encompass many more fields of business and life than just reception and servicing of vessels. The visual identity that the port has used until now – logo, slogan, corporate colours have reached an old age of over a decade. As a consequence, the entire brand and visual identity of our port demanded modernization in order to reflect better and more accurately the enterprise's present activities and future strategies, as the Port of Tallinn representatives state.

The Port of Tallinn has developed a new brand concept in co-operation with Identity, one of the leading creative advertising agencies of Estonia. The latest company's slogan is "The Port of Good News".

Juhan Tere

Swedbank prepares for listing in the Baltic states

Per Aspegren who is responsible for the corporate customers of Swedbank in the Baltics admits that Swedbank is serious about its plan to list its shares in the Baltic states, writes Äripäev.

Aspegren said that key decisions will made in the summer and the bank is still in the exploratory phase, negotiating with Nasdaq OMX, among others.

If Swedbank would be listed in the Baltic states, it would easily be the largest listed company on the Baltic bourses.

Äripäev stock market analyst Romet Kreek said that the listing would have mainly symbolic value, but is unlikely to attract more investors to the stock market since Swedbank is already listed in Stockholm.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Outdoor campaign of advertising agency Tank found to be illegal

Estonian advertising agency Tank is forced to change its outdoor ad campaign for Mainor Business School which used the photos of Richard Branson and Steve Jobs, writes Äripäev.

Under the Estonian advertising act, using a real person in advertising without obtaining his or her written consent first is prohibited.

The campaign included also banners and TV clips on which Branson and Jobs were replaced by Andrus Ansip.

Joel Volkov, owner of Tank, said in comment that he was guilty of not having checked first.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Over a billion kroons are still in circulation in Estonia in May

Over a billion Estonian kroons are still in cash circulation in May although Estonia adopted the euro at the beginning of the year 2011, LETA/National Broadcasting reports.

“There is a surprising amount of Estonian kroons still in people’s hands, a bit over 1 billion at the moment and this is certainly not money that has been kept as souvenirs or keepsakes. This is actually useless and vacantly standing resource,” noted Eesti Pank cash department head Rait Roosve.

According to Eesti Pank data, 69.8 million euros worth of kroons are in circulation, of which 63.3 million euros worth of kroon bills and 6.5 million euros worth of kroon coins.

All banks exchange kroons for euro till the end of June. Estonian Banking Association CEO Karin Talihärm said that the Association will announce in June which bank offices will exchange kroons for euros after that. It must be possible to exchange kroons for euros with official exchange rate an without a service fee in at least one bank office in all counties and in Tallinn, in one office of each bank. Starting next year, it is possible to exchange kroons for euros in Eesti Pank only.

In July, the period when retail companies have to post prices in both euros and kroons ends. Retailers Association CEO Marika Merilai said that there is no common position yet but larger retail chains are likely to continue posting prices in two currencies. Prisma for example has decided to post prices in kroons too for an undetermined period since consumers are still not used to euros.

Estonia welcoming Brits in record numbers

Estonia welcomed a record number of British visitors in the first quarter of the year, the national tourist board has announced.

More than 259,000 tourists stayed in the country's hotels and other accommodation establishments between January and March, 19% more than in the same period last year.

There was a 41% increase in the number of UK visitors, with a total of 9,500 British guests spending 23,292 nights in Estonia during the first three months of 2011.

A number of factors are contributing to the success, including the fact that Tallinn is one of two European Capitals of Culture this year and easyJet's recent introduction of flights to the Estonian capital from Liverpool.

Tarmo Mutso, the country's director of tourism, said: 'Several new tourist attractions have been or will be opened this year in Tallinn, including the Viru Hotel KGB museum, the renovated Estonian History Museum and the Estonian Maritime Museum at the reconstructed Seaplane Harbour on Tallinn's seafront.

'These factors all cumulatively provide excellent conditions for the sustained growth in inbound tourism which we expect to continue.'

Helsinki-Tallinn ferry operators see busy summer

Ferry companies said Friday they expected a busy summer on the Helsinki-Tallinn route, with Estonia's accession to the euro earlier this year expected to encourage crossings.

Tallink, the market leader, reported it had carried about 340,000 passengers on the route in April, up by four per cent year-on-year.
Viking Line, the number two, said its first-quarter passenger numbers had fallen by four per cent from the year-ago period.

Eckerö Line and Linda Line also have ferries on the Helsinki-Tallinn route.

National fish celebrated in Pärnu

A Pärnu festival over the weekend celebrated the räim or Baltic herring, a sardine-like fish that is to Estonia what cod was to north sardine-like fish.

The national fish was available fried, marinated or both, though ETV reported that it was just fine popped in the mouth raw with a bit of added salt.

At the festival, the public got the chance to buy herring, exchange new recipes and sample uhhaa, a clear fish broth.

Workshops, strongly influenced by the traditions of Pärnu's offshore islands Kihnu and Manija, offered a crash course in everything from cooking to mending fishing nets.

"Baltic herring is a source of so much healthy food. It takes time of course - preparing Baltic herring is not like filleting salmon," said Riida Ülle, the keeper of Manija island and the iniatior of the festival. "With salmon you just stick it in the oven or on the grill and bob's your uncle, but it's ten times more expensive. Baltic herring is something from which you can make foods with many nuances."

Kristopher Rikken

Tragic history lurks in Sochi's ski slopes

ESTO-SADOK — When Valter German's ancestors came to the mountains above Sochi from impoverished Estonia, they found a bucolic valley with few traces of the indigenous people chased out by the Tsarist army.

But the history of Russia's brutal deportation of the native tribes from the area some 150 years ago has stirred up international controversy and threatens to taint the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

Russia is trying to promote the area as a skiing destination, with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin regularly photographed sitting on ski lifts and chatting in cafes overlooking the slopes.

Some of Russia's largest companies, including Gazprom, Sberbank and billionaire Vladimir Potanin's Interros group are investing in three resorts that will host most of the Alpine skiing events at the Sochi 2014 Games.

But the giant construction site in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains above the Black Sea has a turbulent history marked by decades of war and ethnic migration.

German's ancestors were among the Estonian families who set up the village of Esto-Sadok, or Estonian Garden, in the late 19th century, said the retired nature reserve ranger who chairs Sochi's Estonian society.

The Estonians settled in the picturesque valley and remained the ethnic majority there until the fall of the Soviet Union. The main activity in the village of 150 was a communal farm that kept beehives.

Tartu Deputy Mayor ousted from office, others under scrutiny

In a vote of no confidence on May 23, the Tartu City Council fired Deputy Mayor Karin Jaanson, who oversaw the city's financial affairs. Jaanson, who is a member of the People's Union party, was at the helm while two other city officials allegedly embezzled city funds.

Twenty-nine city councilors voted for the move and 15 against. Jaanson will be compensated three months' pay.

Coalition partners Reform Party and IRL also called for no-confidence votes against the head of the city's resources department, Urbo Vaarmann, and the head of the culture commission, Natalja Trošina, both of whom are Centre Party members. Their cases will be considered on June 2.

On March 28, the national security agency KAPO arrested Tartu's education director Boris Goldman and head financial specialist Irina Aab on the suspicion that the two had been involved in embezzling city money since 2008. Both officials resigned two days later.

Tartu Deputy Mayor Jüri Sasi, in charge of education and culture, handed in a letter of resignation in early May after the two were charged.

Mayor Urmas Kruuse has said that there is still too little information for him to decide whether to resign himself.

Ott Tammik

Court decision shocks animal welfare workers

Marge Arumäe, a woman who allegedly left her sick, pregnant dog chained to a dog house without food or water while she left home for a summer holiday, was found not guilty by the Pärnu County Court on May 19.

Animal welfare workers were shocked by the court's verdict, Pärnu Animal Shelter staff member Indriko Nurmoja, who saved the dog, told ETV.

But surprises are many times the case!

"It was particularly painful to hear how one of Arumäe's supporters in the courtroom cried out: 'May God be blessed.' I do not know what god could have justified such an act. This is unbelievable," said Nurmoja.

Arumäe was also freed from any obligation to compensate the Pärnu Animal Shelter for the approximately 480-euro cost of the dog's medical treatment.

The animal welfare workers plan to appeal the court's decision.

"I want to specifically monitor the formation process of the court's decision; what was the evidence |...| that indicated that there was no criminal behavior in Arumäe's action," said prosecutor Küllike Kask of the Western District Prosecutor’s Office.

In the eyes of the court, Arumäe did not commit a criminal act against the dog, said Kask. Nevertheless leaving the dog without care was unacceptable, the prosecutor said.

Ingrid Teesalu

Estonians kidnapped in Lebanon appeal for help in video message

      

Estonian citizens kidnapped in Lebanon in March appealed for help in a video message received by the country’s Foreign Ministry yesterday.
"This is really hard for us," said one of the seven Estonians in the video broadcast over the Internet, adding it was recorded on May 16. "We are very tired and in great danger." He asked relatives and other people who know the kidnapped to push the Estonian government to help free them.

The Estonians, travelling in eastern Lebanon on bicycles, were kidnapped on March 23, according to a Foreign Ministry statement the next day. No information has been released on who took them captive. They appealed for help to the authorities in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and France in a video broadcast by Al Arabiya television and LBC TV on April 20.

The message didn’t include any conditions for the release of the captives, nor any demands, similarly to the previous video. The Estonian government will continue efforts to free the kidnapped in cooperation with Lebanese authorities and other partners, the ministry said in an e-mail today.

The kidnapping was carried out by armed assailants in two vans and a dark-colored Mercedes without license plates who ambushed the group, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said in March. Their bicycles were found in the industrial zone of the eastern city of Zahleh, the Lebanese military said then.

Ott Ummelas

Rents for Pärnu summer homes to reach 1,000 euros a month

Real estate prices may surge up to three times the winter rate in the coastal town of Pärnu, a popular party and beach-going destination, writes ERR News.

As Estonia's "summer capital," Pärnu will soon be flooded by both local and foreign holiday makers. Luxury flats and comfortable summer homes that sit on the beach can command rents of around 1,000 euros per month, though locals tend to keep a tighter budget.

Rain Rätt, a real estate analyst for Ober-Haus, said rent levels have remained the same compared to a year ago, but there has been a 30 percent drop since the climax of the economic boom in 2007. Renters have also become more flexible, he said, to keep vacancies low in the still brittle economy.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Cyclists prepare for Eastern Europe's biggest race

Claiming to be Eastern Europe's largest road cycling event, the Estonian Cycling Weekend will commence its 10th year with a boom from the starting gun next week.

The action begins with a 186-kilometer trip from Tallinn to Tartu on May 27. On the following day, competitive cyclists will race around Tartu, and on May 29, thousands will tour the hilly southern Estonian landscape.

"The occasion got its start from a desire to bring top-level professional cyclists to Estonia, to offer local stars a quality competition, and to bring cycling into the mainstream spotlight," said spokesman Uko Urb.

A number of important international cycling clubs have found their way to the event in recent years, including AG2R, Oktos, Cofidis, Landbouwcredit Colnago and Jartazi. The races will also give Estonian cyclists a chance to collect points for entry into London's Olympic Games.

Ott Tammik

Court fines owner of file sharing website

The Pärnu County Court found Raido Käärid, owner of local file sharing website eestitorrent.com, guilty of copyright infringement and fined him 645 euros.

The website illegally distributed a wide range of films and music, providing access to both Estonian and international titles. TV shows running on Estonian channels were also actively recorded and distributed via the site.

"The illegal distribution of [copyright material] over the internet is a crime that directly disrespects all the people who have contributed to our [having] music to listen to and films to watch," said Erik Mandre, CEO of the Organization for Copyright Protection. Madre added that none of the people punished for copyright infringement ever expect to be cought by the police, nevertheless it happens.

In Estonia, the reproduction and distribution of commercial works without the author's permission is a felony punishable by up to three years imprisonment.

Ingrid Teesalu

20 Estonian men yoked to the Baltic Queen

Twenty Estonian men yoked to the Tallink's cruise ship Baltic Queen move the 20.000-ton cruise ship, to set a new record, during the Tallinn's Maritime Days in Tallinn on May 20, 2011. The event was organized as one of the key events on Tallinn's Maritime Days by Tallink company.

The Baltic Queen is one of the Baltic Sea's largest cruise ships, with a length of 212 meters, beam of 29 meters and weight of close to 20,000 tons. In 2010 the Estonian men hauled a 200-ton train and in 2009, one of the muscle men, Andrus Murumets, single-handedly pushed a 40-ton Estonian Air Boeing 737-500.

Estonia’s example

Jackson Diehl writes: Baltic nation curbs powers of president, rich in establishing true democracy.

“In ‘89 to ‘91 we thought we saw democracy spreading across an entire region,” Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told me in a conversation in his office in Tallinn.

But of the East Bloc population served by Radio Free Europe – where Ilves was a research analyst 20 years ago – and Radio Liberty before 1989, just 25 percent now live in countries rated as free, Ilves says.

The rest have fallen back under some form of authoritarianism.

Will the Middle East make it to 25 percent in 20 years? That could depend, says Ilves, on whether this generation of revolutionaries makes good decisions about how to build democratic institutions and a free economy – and whether the West is supportive or discouraging.

What did this tiny Baltic country do right? First, says Ilves, it created a parliamentary rather than a presidential system; every former communist country with a strong president has become an autocracy.

It was aggressive in privatizing its economy, but in a way that prevented oligarchs from gaining control over swaths of industry, as in neighboring Russia.

Companies based on Estonia capital have coped better with crisis

Companies that operate in Estonia and are based on Estonian capital have coped with the economic crisis better than companies based on foreign capital, Swedbank’s corporate banking managing director Robert Kitt said, as reported by LETA/Postimees Online.

“It can be seen that companies based on Estonian capital were looking for export possibilities more actively that companies with foreign capital,” Kitt said at a customer seminar.

“While it is easier for a foreign industry to close its company in Estonia, local capital chooses to rather go and work.”

Kitt noted that since Estonia depends on foreign demand, the Estonian economy is doing as well as Finnish and Swedish industrial companies are doing since a large part of our exports depends on the wellbeing of the Scandinavian industry.

He warned that exporters have to be ready for possible weakening of demand and it is important to find new markets and products.

Juhan Tere