BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonian Air to receive 150,000 euros worth subsidies from Finland

The Kajaani local government and Kajuun Etu in Finland will transfer the Estonian national carrier Estonian Air 150,000 euros for operation of a route between Tallinn and Kajaani for one year, the Estonian news portal BBN reports.

The financing is a part of the marketing and promotion campaign of Kajaani aimed at making Kajaani more accessible.

Estonian Air announced that it will open flights between Tallinn and Kajaani on April 3.

The subsidy enables the airline to sell return tickets for about 100 euros.

As reported, Estonian Air carried altogether 50,287 passengers in November in Tallinn, which is 28.7% more than last year.

Juhan Tere

Contract to redesign Tallinn transport fare system will cost less

Tallinn's planned paperless fare system for public transport will cost the city less than expected after the result of a procurement procedure was successfully challenged.

The consortium led by Ühendatud Piletid has prevailed in its appeal to the procurement challenge committee.

In the spring, Tallinn awarded the contract to a partnership between the Estonian company Business IT Partner and the Turkish company Kentkart, which would have cost the city 8.7 million euros.

A challenge to the decision was filed by two consortia. The Webmedia consortium appealed to administrative court, but both it and the district court rejected it, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

But Ühendatud Piletid's 4.6 million euro proposal, tendered with Webpartner and the Czech company Mikroelektronika, was declared the winner.

Of the 4.6 million price tag, the card readers to be installed in 570 public transport vehicles will cost 1.5 million euros.

The city said that, along with the integration with Harju County public transport and Tallinn Card, the new system allows the best network of routes to be put together.

The new system will be implemented nine months after the signing of the contract - in September 2012 - and it will at first function in parallel to the current ID card system.

E-census questionnaires in Estonia can be completed at public libraries

The online questionnaires of the 2011 Population and Housing Census, which starts on 31 December, can also be completed at public libraries, which have already been supplied with the necessary ID card readers. Residents can participate in the e-census from 31 December until the end of January 2012.

“If a person knows how to use a computer, but does not have Internet access or a computer at home, they can complete the e-census questionnaire at a public Internet access point at any public library,” said Mr Priit Potisepp, Director General of Statistics Estonia.

There are more than half a thousand public libraries in Estonia. “The census is such an important event for Estonia, and libraries are very happy to offer their help. During the opening hours, anyone is welcome to visit a public library to complete the census questionnaire online,” said Ms Meeli Veskus, the adviser on libraries at the Estonian Ministry of Culture.

All libraries have received ID card readers through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Culture and Statistics Estonia. “In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, we have provided ID card readers to all central libraries and other public libraries that requested these. The libraries have also received short manuals on participation in the e-census, so that the librarians can assist people if necessary,” added Potisepp.

Carmen Kass : January 2012 - ELLE - Portugal

Tartu toy museum receives rare collection

A unique collection of wooden toys created in Tartu in the early 20th century has found its way back home after a 70-year absence.

The group of nearly 100 toys, which include plywood figures depicting animals, fruit trees and bushes as well as children and adults working in a garden, were donated to the Tartu Toy Museum by German resident Renata Varto, whose father Nikolai Viller produced them when her family lived in the town in the 1920s and 30s.

“Very few [Estonian] toys from the prewar period have been preserved, and of those that have, many are hard to identify. Viller's toys present examples of his work, and we also know the history of their manufacture,” said the museum's director, Triin Vaaro.

Viller was an architect whose most famous work in Tartu was the interior design of the Ateena theater and restaurant. In his carpentry shop, he also made toys, chess sets and decorative household items. The family moved to Lviv in 1939.

The collection will go on display next year, rus.err.ee reported.

Steve Roman

Finnish woman got dangerous breast implant in Estonia

PIP implants have been placed in Tallinn, where Finnish women regularly go for cosmetic surgery

A number of PIP (Poly Implant Prosthesis) breast implants, which are suspected of being dangerous, have been placed in women even in Tallinn, where Finnish women go to have plastic surgery done.
      Such breast augmentation trips have been particularly popular among young Finnish women.
      ”I can confirm that PIP breast implants have been used in Estonia. Unfortunately, we do not have any statistics on the number of such implants”, says Andrei Knuut, Head of Department at Estonia’s Health Protection Agency.
     
Two months ago, a breast implant was placed in a Finnish woman in her 30s.
      However, the implant was not the one agreed upon in advance.
      According to the woman, she had been promised an Allergan implant, but instead, she got an M-implant which has exactly the same type code as the PIP implant.
      On the Internet, the code leads directly to the site of the PIP breast implant.
      ”I bought a trip through a Finnish clinic. I was promised a new operation right away, but of course I do not want to go to the same surgeon again”, the woman says.
     
In France, the estimated number of dangerous breast implants placed in women is 30,000, while in Sweden the number is 2,500. In Finland itself, PIP breast implants have not been sold at all.
      On the website of the Dutch Medicines Control Board, women are urged to watch their health, if they have a PIP or M-implant.

Cabinet denies Russian-language schools exemption from "60% rule"

The Cabinet has turned down the plea of 15 Russian-language upper secondary schools to be exempted from the 60 percent transition to teaching in Estonian.

Ten of the schools that have said they are unable to comply are in Tallinn, with the rest in Narva.

The Ministry of Education has earlier said that the time given to the schools - five years - should have been sufficient for making the necessary preparations. The state has also been allocating extra funds to Russian-language high schools for motivating teachers, purchasing study materials and organizing extracurricular activities for the development of language skills since 2007.

The schools which asked for the exemption had altogether received 290,000 euros of extra funding, the ministry said.

Since the law took effect this year, a part of the Russian-speaking community has organized numerous protests on the grounds of possible deterioration in the quality of education due to the language shift. The lack of customized Estonian-language textbooks and poor language proficiency of students coming from junior high schools, as well as teachers, have also been presented as arguments.  

Ingrid Teesalu

Russian schools are here to stay : Jaak Aaviksoo

Minister of Education Jaak Aaviksoo tried to appease supporters of Russian curriculum at a press conference, after the Cabinet today dismissed an appeal from 15 schools in Tallinn and Narva that asked to be exempt from new language requirements.

Estonian AirScore garners second major award for social media loyalty program

At the recent Airline Information Global Conference on Airline Loyalty and Frequent Flier Programs Baltic carrier Estonian Air was recognized for the second time in a month as having the world’s best social media loyalty marketing program.  Estonian Air AirScore beat aviation industry giant Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, a 50+million member program which had just completed a multi-million dollar overhaul.

The Mega Awards are given out by Airline Information – a leading company in organizing commercial aviation conferences worldwide. The event is the biggest of its kind on the world.  The 5^th annual Mega Conference for Airline Loyalty and Ancillary Revenue Programs was held Nov 28-29 at Gulfstream Park Racetrack, near Fort Lauderdale. Over 400  delegates attended, senior executives representing airline, hotel, rental car and loyalty reward firms across the globe.

Winners of a Mega Award are decided by a panel of senior airline loyalty experts and aviation executives.  Mega Awards recognize marketing campaigns and product development excellence by airlines and vendors. Awards are also given for individual professional accomplishment. Recognized commercial areas included: Loyalty, Social Media, Ancillary Revenue/Merchandising considered by the Mega Awards Judging Academy.

“The award confirms that Estonian Air’s investment in social media prioritization has proven correct. Social media allows marketing efficiency, wide reach and will continue to be the airline channel of choice for future route launches and campaign distribution. “This is wonderful recognition for our entire team that we value highly,” said Gunnar Mägi, Marketing and Development Manager of Estonian Air.  “Here’s one for the underdog” said Magi in accepting the trophy.

Estonian court fees are exorbitant : Officials

It costs more to go to court in Estonia than anywhere else in Europe (a good reason why employees cannot complain in suing their employers): while the maximum state duty for filing a claim in court is EUR 48 in Sweden and EUR 156 in Finland, the maximum in Estonia is almost 100,000 euros !!!!

Even Märt Rask, chairman of the National Supreme Court, has said while the Estonian Constitution says that everyone has the right to turn to the court for the protection of his or her rights, the reality is that only the rich can afford it.

Among others, the Supreme Court has ruled that excessive state fees are unconstitutional.

In one case, an Estonian truck driver who earned about 800 euros a month and had other property worth some 4.5 million kroons, filed a claim seeking to overturn a decision on rightful restitution of rights to property that belonged to his parents. He had to pay 40,000 kroons for filing a claim in first-instance court and 770,000 kroons for appealing it to the second-instance court. When he asked for a lower state fee, the second-instance court refused to cut it.

Since state duties form a considerable income source for the state budget, the government has so far been uninterested to do anything to lower them.

Law chancellor Indrek Teder and Toomas Vaher, chairman of the Estonian Bar Association, have now taken the issue up and say that high state duties are the key reason why Estonians cannot protect their rights.

Minister of justice Kristen Michal has already promised to cut the state fees for court proceedings starting from next July.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Euro not in crisis says Estonia : Jurgen Ligi

The troubles in the euro zone should not be labelled as crises for the euro, Estonia's Minister of Finance Jurgen Ligi said in an opinion piece published in Estonian daily Postimees Wednesday.

According to the finance minister, the euro zone hasn't been the trigger or the cause of the troubles rocking financial markets. Instead, Ligi points at the bursting credit bubble in the U.S. and the resulting government debts countries have accumulated, as the root of the problems.

Ligi said the euro zone is signified by large regional differences, in much the same way that individual states in the U.S. differ.

He noted that debt as a percentage of gross domestic product in countries in the euro zone ranges from 6% of GDP to 160% of GDP, with average euro-zone public debt somewhere in the middle, while the same figure in the U.S. is over 100% of economic output.

"The U.S. budget deficit amounts to over 10% [of GDP], while in the euro zone it's 4%," he said. "The euro zone, unlike the U.S., doesn't depend on foreign money, and in terms of foreign trade it's in surplus," he added.

However, Ligi criticized politicians in many euro-zone countries for being influenced by various influential interest groups, which has led to the introduction of various tax exemptions, uncompetitive regulation and indexed wage increases.

Through the Baltic States in a 2011 Jaguar XJ

All politics is local. So Congressman Thomas P. O'Neill, the late Democratic power broker, once famously observed. Although the legendary New England buttonholer's succinct aphorism originally concerned an election he'd lost in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 1930s, his words continue to resonate.

As they did recently when I set off by Jaguar XJ from a rock-music festival in Latvia to catch up with Toomas Hendrik Ilves, president of Estonia, the smallest, most northern, and most thriving of the three former Soviet republics on the Baltic Sea. Ilves and I once had a political connection, and while it had been some time ago, it was very local. How's that?

The Jaguar part is easy: the carmaker sent an XJ -- my current favourite luxury touring sedan -- overland from its German headquarters, through Poland, to meet us in Riga, Latvia, a handsome port city at the mouth of the Daugava River. From Riga, we would drive an hour to Salacgriva to catch my musical charges, the band OK Go, who were performing at the Positivus Festival, a multiday, open-air rock event. Then it was on to Estonia, where we'd spend a few nights in Pärnu, a sleepy seaside retreat on the Gulf of Riga, before heading to the country's capital, the quaint, walled city of Tallinn. Afterward, we'd travel back to Latvia for a few days of castle hopping before rounding out our whirlwind, 1000-mile Baltic tour with twenty hours in Lithuania, birthplace of my paternal grandmother.

Many surprises lay in store for our intrepid trio of English speakers -- me, photographer Martyn Goddard, and my bon vivant college chum, Richard Hart, a former New Orleanian who, like us, enjoys new places, strong drink, and four square meals a day. Eastern Europe gets a bad rap in the United States, even among those who've never been there, so a little look at the facts, up close and personal, couldn't hurt. Among the things we didn't anticipate: the natural beauty and abundance of unspoiled lands, the quality of the roads, and the general ease of transit.

The people look great, too: fit, well-dressed, handsome. Then there was the unexpected appeal of the architecture, along with the hospitable kindness of persons who once lived behind the Iron Curtain, individuals who we in the West were taught to imagine as grim, boring, and unfriendly, but who proved anything but. Still, for sheer improbability, the Estonian president's story gave everything and everyone else a run for their money.

Housing loans volume can grow by 10–15% in 2012 : Swedbank

Swedbank Estonia's communications manager Mart Siilivask says that presuming that Estonia's GDP will be positive in 2012, the volume of housing loans can grow 10-15%, LETA/Äripäev.ee reports.

Siilivask said that the number of long-term debtors of the bank has started to decrease. "We have over 350,000 private loan clients, of whom 77,000 have concluded a housing loan contract. In 2009-2010, around 6,000 clients contacted us who needed restructuring of loans due to payment problems. In 2011, 850 clients have needed that," he said.

He added that a third of the clients who had payment problems, have now overcome their problems and the bank works with the rest.

The number of real estate units of clients sold via execution proceedings was 463 in the first 11 months of this year versus 308 at the same time last year and is likely to be the same in 2012 as it was this year, said Siilivask.

Juhan Tere

Underaged drinkers outpace 11 European countries

A study commissioned by the European Commission found that Tallinn schoolchildren consume more alcohol, are more often drunk and have more often been hungover than youth in 10 other European countries.

Seventy percent of the 14-and-15-year-olds surveyed said they have tried alcohol; 24 percent drink regularly, at least twice a month. More than half of students have been drunk in their lifetime; 16 percent have been drunk more than three times; and 38 percent have been hungover, reported Postimees.

Around a fifth of those surveyed are problematic drinkers, regularly having three or more drinks in one sitting.

Generally, the consumption habits of boys and girls are similar, although boys tend to consume slightly larger amounts. The habits of parents were also a reliable probability indicator for how much their children drink.

On the other hand, the number of Estonians who have tried drinking alcohol is close to the study's average. The number of regular drinkers was even below the average.

Ott Tammik

Price of Christmas trees skyrockets in Estonia

A year ago a Christmas tree in Tallinn cost 100 kroons – or six euros per running meter, this season its price amounts to ten euros, the Estonian news portal BBN reports.

According to traders, the price rise can be explained with demand, writes LETA.

"I don't think that the price will fall since the trees have been grown in a nursery, you have wages and growing fuel costs," said one tree trader who is selling Christmas trees in Tallinn.

EU fails to raise 200-billion-euro fund as small nations suffer

The EU has failed to raise 200 billion euros to fund an IMF rescue loan for its indebted members. The sum was promised at a summit of EU leaders 10 days ago, and the fact that it has not materialized signals further rifts within the 27-member bloc.

­The package European Union finance ministers have come up with is 50 billion euros short of what is deemed necessary to help debt-stricken nations avoid default.

The 200 billion fund became elusive after the UK – the biggest EU economy that does not use the euro – declined to contribute and pulled out of the deal being hammered out at the summit.

The extra International Monetary Fund loans are meant to be channeled into a special fund that will run alongside the eurozone's own bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) – the body created to combat financial crisis and rescue countries like Greece. The eurozone hopes that its own loans, which will come via national central banks, will encourage other non-European countries to also support Europe via the IMF.

The failure of EU countries to come up with the extra cash will come as little surprise given the financial mess prevailing in many states, some of which are struggling even to pay their membership bills.

Take Estonia, for example. On paper, it is one of the most prosperous economies of the Baltic region. On the other hand, it is the EU’s poorest country. And a full year after joining the eurozone, Estonians say the positive changes they were promised are nowhere to be seen.

Estonia to win from the current crisis : Sonny Aswani

Sonny Aswani, a businessman from Singapore who has been doing business in Estonia for 18 years said in an interview to Äripäev that Estonia is likely to win from the current eurozone crisis since it forces more Scandinavian businesses to transfer their jobs to Estonia.

Aswani who has a paper plant in Estonia says that the secret has been to diversify. “There were times when we exported 90% of our output to Europe. Today we are exporting 30% to Europe this is what makes us successful.”

According to Aswani, Estonian businessmen seeking to expand should be looking towards Asia, but not China. “I would invest in Indonesia. I believe that by 2020 the Indonesian economy would be the fifth or sixth largest in the world. Another country with a huge potential is India. And the best platform to expand to these countries is Singapore,” said the businessman.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Minimum wage in Estonia will be increased to 290 EUR in 2012

Estonian Trade Unions Confederation and Employers' Confederation signed an agreement on Tuesday that will raise minimum wage to 290 EUR a month and 1.8 EUR an hour, National Broadcasting/LETA reports.

The agreement will be sent to the government too, which has said that it respects the agreement between trade unions and employers and will implement the rates set in the expanded collective agreement as a national minimum wage.

Estonian Trade Unions Confederation chairman Harri Taliga said that the minimum wage increases for the first time after a standstill of several years and thus the symbolic value of the extra 12 EUR is even bigger than the monetary value.

Taliga said that it is a sign that the turnovers of companies have increased but the confidence about future is still low. "Undoubtedly it is a positive signal to all those who still work for the so-called "recession era wage" – it is time to start concluding agreements everywhere for gradual increase of wages," said Taliga.

Employers' Confederation manager Tarmo Kriis said that this year's talks were constructive – employers understood that standstill of minimum wage cannot be agreed upon anymore and employees were ready for compromise too. "The growth of minimum wage agreed upon today should not reduce competitiveness of employers and if the economic development doesn’t embark on a new fall, we will hopefully talk about an increase of minimum wages next year too," he said.

Juhan Tere

Äripäev lists Estonia’s most expensive homes on sale

Estonia’s most expensive home on sale costs 8 million euros and is the Sausti manor house in Kiili municipality that belongs to Mart Lajal.

Lajal who did not wish to comment the sale to Äripäev in greater detail is estimated to have assets worth 5.6 million euros since he only co-owns the property. He is also small shareholder in Mecro that sells tools.

Second in the Äripäev list of Estonia’s most expensive homes on sale belongs to businessman Alexander Kofkin who is selling a building at Pikk 23 with 7 apartments in Tallinn Old Town for 6 million euros. Like Laial, Kofkin is seeking buyers for its properties in sothebyrealty.com, a famous global auction house.

Third most expensive private property on sale is a building at Kinga 1 in Tallinn Old Town that belongs to Oliver Kruuda, costs 5.3 million euros and has been foreclosed by bankruptcy trustees.

Art dealer Kalev Klais is selling his villa in Kakumäe in Tallinn for 3 million euros. In the summer he asked 4.5 million euros for the property. Klais claims that he has people interested in the property both in Estonia and abroad.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Sales tax abolishment not likely to lower prices

The abolishment of the capital’s sales tax in 2012 will not bring any changes to product prices, according to major supermarket chains operating in Estonia. 

Due to intense competition, none of the large retail chains have added the 1 percent Tallinn sales tax to their prices but rather kept their prices even throughout the country, meaning that either the companies themselves - or consumers outside the capital region - had to absorb the difference. But there will be no drop in prices now that the tax will be abolished, supermarkets say. 

According to Annika Vilu of the Selver chain, their stores did not increase their prices when the Tallinn tax became effective in July 2010. Similarly, the Rimi chain has been covering the 1 percent difference "from its profits", Katrin Bats, spokeswoman for Rimi told uudised.err.ee.

Maxima and Prisma supermarket chains have also said they did not pass on the sales tax burden on to their customers. And with profitability figures down at just 2 or 3 percent, none of the major chains are now willing to cut the prices further, said Maxima's Erkki Erilaid.

The Tallinn City Government adopted the 1 percent sales tax within city limits in December of 2009, citing the national budget amendment that significantly depleted the local governments' income share without offering any means for compensation.

Parliament passed the bill striking sales tax from the list of local taxes in 2010. The legislation will take effect on January 1, 2012.

Ingrid Teesalu

Decline in births caused by economic uncertainty

The number of births this year will likely stay below 15,000, which is around 1,000 less than recorded in the last four years. 

According to Mare Ainsaar, senior researcher in social sciences at the University of Tartu, many young people feel uncertainty about their financial situation, which could be one of the reasons for the decline in the number of births.

Young families often face the difficulty of finding suitable accommodation, said Ainsaar.  "Although [real estate] prices are currently not the highest, young families often lack initial capital to move from their so-called bachelor apartments to their dream family home,” Ainsaar told Postimees. 

In addition, many potential parents have left Estonia to live and work abroad, said Ainsaar, adding that the nation’s current family policy does not give any encouraging signals, as it seems that the state is looking for ways to cut subsides.

For example, by reducing the revenue base of municipal governments, the state is putting at risk the local support that families and children need, said Ainsaar. 

Ingrid Teesalu