BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonia’s Malk considered for ambassador to EU

* Former foreign minister and ambassador to the UK, Raul Malk, could become Estonia’s next ambassador to the EU, the Eesti Paevaleht daily reports.

Malk is currently in the Foreign Ministry’s department for policy planning.
"He is just a candidate (for the position) yet," a spokesperson for the ministry told the daily. Malk has not been appointed by the president yet.

Estonians need 640 euros a month for “normal life”

TALLINN - Estonians believe they need at least 10,000 kroons (640 euros) per month to live a “normal life”.

While the gross monthly pay averaged about 9,000 kroons, many believe this is not enough to live normally, a poll published in the daily Postimees newspaper reports.

Estonians are finding it more difficult to afford household items, as costs increase to match European standards, while wages remain relatively stagnant.
The survey commissioned by the paper was carried out by TNS Emor pollsters, with the aim of finding out Estonians' opinion on how big one's monthly net wages should be to be able to lead a "normal life." It was up to each respondent to decide what "normal life" constituted, the paper observes.
Some 28 percent of the more than 500 respondents aged 15-74 found one needs a net monthly income of 10,000 kroons.
In the opinion of 24 percent of the polled, it is sufficient to pocket between 5,001 and 9,999 kroons a month, and 16 percent think one cannot manage well with an income below 15,000 kroons.
It appeared from the survey that 32 percent of women find 10,000 kroons and 31 percent, 5,000-10,000 kroons a sufficient income.
Of men 27 percent thought an income of at least 15,000 kroons would secure a "normal life," Postimees reports.
Data by the Statistical Office show that average gross monthly pay in the first quarter of 2006 was 8,591 kroons and only a few percent of wage earners received 10,000 kroons a month in 2004. Last year the average gross monthly pay was the highest in Tallinn at 9,462 kroons and the lowest in the northeastern Ida-Virumaa region at 6,057 kroons, the daily notes.

Barroso backs Tallinn's "Green Capital" initiative

TALLINN - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso given his support to the idea of introducing the title of Green Capital of Europe.

The expression of support came in a letter to Tallinn Mayor Juri Ratas, who devised the proposal for a Green Capital competition to encourage cleaner cities.

Barroso said the excellent initiative should encourage local governments even more to improve the environment of towns and cities and aspire toward healthier and more sustainable cities.
The Commission president said the proposal converged with the EU's Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment.
Ratas said the letter from Barroso a big recognition for Tallinn and the whole of Estonia.
Ratas made a proposal to the Commission early this year to introduce the title of Green Capital of Europe or a respective prize, which would be awarded annually to the European city that has excelled the most in protection of the environment.
So far, forty cities have thrown their weight behind the concept, which needs the full approval of the European Commission to come into effect.

Beware of airlines companies : They all are here to do you ....!

So do make sure that they don´t ....

The advertised airline ticket price is often lower than the actual final price with all airport taxes. Moreover, sometimes airlines charge a higher airport tax than is required.

For example, the airport tax in Riga is EUR 12.18, yet Aeroflot charges EUR 32, Czech Airlines charges EUR 16.20 and easyJet charges EUR 14.

Some airlines receive tax discounts, for example, Ryanair and airBaltic receive an 80 percent discount in Riga, yet they charge the full tax.

Ryanair explains that EUR 12.18 is the published airport tax and passengers do not pay more than that .... ; airBaltic says that it uses an international booking system that does not allow calculating tax discounts .....

Aren´t they all crooks ?  I thought they were .......

Andrus Ansip met with Russian Minister of Transport

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip welcomed to Stenbock House Igor Levitin, Russian Minister of Transport, who was on a two-day visit to Estonia. Cooperation issues related to transit and border crossing were the most important themes of the meeting.

Levitin informed Ansip of the situation in the transit business in Russia, noting that transit volumes are expected to increase continuously in northwest Russia. According to Levitin, railway transport is profitable if distances exceed 3000 kilometres; motor transport is a more efficient means in the event of shorter distances. In connection with this, Russia considers the construction of the new Narva Bridge to be important. The Prime Minister expressed a hope that a relevant protocol of intentions would already be signed in the near future. “I hope that our relationship will increasingly be based on constructive cooperation”, the Prime Minister added.

While discussing the issue of border cooperation, both parties stated that although the cooperation between the border checkpoints is good, the crossing capacity of the borders is not satisfactory. According to Levitin, Russia has thousands of kilometres of undeveloped borders in Central Asia, which also slows down the development of frontiers with the countries of the European Union. According to Levitin, Russia hopes to primarily build common border crossing points in cooperation with the European Union. “At the moment, though, it is unclear on the territory of which country the common border crossing points, either on one side of the border or the other, are to be built,” Levitin said.
_____________________________________
Briefing Room of Estonian Government Communication Office
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/
[email protected]

This is EUROPE ....

Poles seeking jobs found forced labor in Italy .....

By PETER KIEFER

ROME — A 20-year-old Pole who was freed this week from a prisonlike labor camp in the south of Italy said conditions there were so grim that he feared for his life from the moment he woke.

“The newspapers can never describe what we lived through,” said the man, Lukasz, one of 113 Poles freed Tuesday after Italian authorities raided places they described as forced-labor camps in the Puglia region, in the far southeast, where they said they suspected torture, rape, forced prostitution and possibly killing occurred.

Italy is no stranger to the plight of immigrants, and stories of their exploitation by organized criminals are well known. But these camps involved not the usual north African immigrants but rather the citizens of another European Union country, subjected to extreme brutality.

According to news briefings by the Italian and Polish police, an international criminal ring lured an estimated 1,000 Polish farm workers to Italy to labor for paltry wages in squalid conditions. The police said the ring began to operate one to two years ago.

For many of the victims, the trap was sprung when they responded to newspaper advertisements promising seasonal jobs picking fruit and vegetables. What they got was nightmarishly different.

After paying an initial travel fee of about $190 .......

Apartment for sale in Pärnu

Hello to all,

We have an apartment for sale in Pärnu.  It was my mother's apartment so it was not used but a couple of months. It is in a building of 6 other apartments, about 1 block from Pärnu beach.  It is a perfect location. Walking distance to just about everything (I know  I walked everywhere when I was there in 2004).

It is a 2 bedroom apartment, one bathroom, balcony, sauna, washer/dryer, and dishwasher in the apartment.  It was built in 2004 everything is brand new in the apartment.  Could be purchased with the furniture.

Please pass this along to anyone that you feel would be interested.  If
interested then please contact me at this email.

Look forward to hearing from you
Kai ([email protected])

Russia, Estonia to build new border bridge

TALLINN - Russia and its European Union neighbor Estonia signed a preliminary protocol on cooperation in building a new border bridge across the Narva River, the Estonian Economics Ministry said Saturday.

The project will receive joint funding from the two countries and the EU.

Russian Transportation Minister Igor Levitin and Estonian Economic Affairs and Communications Minister Edgar Savisaar signed the document during Levitin's two-day visit to Estonia, during which a preliminary intergovernmental agreement on bilateral rail cooperation was also signed.

The new bridge, linking Russia's Ivangorod with Estonia's Narva, will add speed and efficiency to passenger and goods transit between Russia and the EU, an Estonian ministry official said. It will increase border checkpoint capacity by several times, ensure safety for cross-border transport, and pose a minimal threat to the environment, the official said.

Due to a rapid rise in the number of vehicles crossing the border in recent years, the existing bridge from Narva to Ivangorod has become overloaded, the ministry said.

Lidl’s cancelled expansion plan upsets government

Lidl's decision to give up expansion plans in Estonia is bad for the country as its retail sector needs more competition, according to Estonia's economic affairs minister. "We are not happy with competition in Estonia", Edgar Savisaar said, adding "In the three Baltic states combined, the market is eight million people, so I can't understand the argument".

Lidl had announced on Wednesday that it has given up plans to expand to Estonia, saying it “has changed its strategy, because the Estonian market is too small". The Estonian website of Lidl has also been closed down.

Railway in Estonia and Latvia : a Tallinn-Riga rail connection at last ?

* Regular passenger train service between the Latvian and Estonian capitals could be launched next year, a representative of Latvian passenger railway company Pasazieru Vilciens (Passenger Train) has said.

Passenger Train board member Ivars Zalais told the press that the company planned to resume service on the route Riga-Sigulda-Cesis-Valmiera-Valga. From Valga, which is on the Latvian-Estonian border, passengers could be transported to Tallinn in cooperation with Estonia's passenger operator. "Estonia is open to negotiations," said Zalais.

A fast train might be put on the new route, since the distance from Riga to Valga was quite long, he said. Passenger Train would not give any specific time when the Riga-Valga train could start running. Board Chairwoman Linda Baltina said that the company would launch the route in six months if it was ordered by the Latvian state.
Transport Minister Krisjanis Peters said earlier that the Riga-Valga train could be launched in the next few years, but it was unlikely to happen this year.

Currently there is no direct passenger railway service between Riga and Tallinn. The Riga-Valga line was functional until March 2001.
Passenger Train has recently resumed service between Riga and Liepaja in southwestern Latvia. Last year, Passenger Train carried 25.5 million passengers, up 8.8 percent from 2004. The company is the passenger service subsidiary of the state-owned railway company Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway).

"Side-Line" readers : where do you come from ?

* With the Summer being a somewhat calmer period, we finally have some time to give you some more info on who visits the Side-Line website.

In this first chapter we will give you some insight as to where the visitors exactly come from. Unexpectedly our stats show that Side-Line counts up to 42,9% USA residents surfing the website. This is a number that keeps increasing month after month. Remind that when Side-Line.com was launched back in 1999 20% of the visits was generated by Star and Stripers.

Coming quite a bit behind are residents from Canada and the United Kingdom who both take a share of 15%. Germany comes right after with 8% of the visitors. France, Belgium and Sweden close the ranks with each more or less 6%.

What follows is a list of 2% countries such as Australia, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Estonia, Mexico, Denmark, Hungary, Greece, Finland, Ireland and the Russian Federation.

If we look at the numbers per city we get a completely different story. Estonia for example is almost single represented by Tallinn and thus is the 3rd most popular city in Europe only preceeded by Paris and London. 4th is Budapest (Hungary) with Dublin (Ireland) and Berlin (Germany) on the 5th and 6th position.

Remark that Germany does not figure into the top 3 cities list of Europe as the readers there are spread allover the country and less centralised to one city. Only Berlin jumps out. When we look at the USA we see 4 cities jumping out : Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle and Columbus. Canada from its side is having an industrial party all week long in Toronto so the data show.

Le ministre russe des Transports a pris part à l'ouverture d'un nouveau terminal pétrolier en Estonie

TALLINN -  Le ministre russe des Transports Igor Levitine, en visite de travail en Estonie, a pris part vendredi à l'ouverture d'un nouveau terminal destiné à transvaser du pétrole et des produits pétroliers russes.

Ce terminal pétrolier dont les capacités s'élèvent à 240 000 mètres cubes est situé à Iru, près de Tallinn.

La longueur de la conduite de transport entre le port et le terminal est de 10 km, sa capacité de transport est de 1 million de tonnes de pétrole par mois. L'installation doit atteindre sa capacité projetée à la fin de 2006, selon des prévisions.

Le coût du projet est de 550 millions de couronnes estoniennes (plus de 35 millions d'euros).

Le terminal appartient à l'entreprise estonienne AS Trendgate, dont la compagnie russe Severstaltrans est copropriétaire. AS Trendgate a été fondée en 2002.

Putin urges Estonia to be calm in solving problems with Russia

ST. PETERSBURG - Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Estonia to solve the existing problems with Russia calmly and “without hysteria”.

“Only then we will be able to begin interaction and gain benefits, especially such a small country like Estonia,” he said.

“I wish that some complicated issues which we have inherited from the past were not politicised and that agreements were being implemented,” Putin told reporters shortly before midnight on Sunday.

By saying this, the president meant, among other things, the border agreement with Estonia.

“Moscow doesn’t understand why a document that has been endorsed by the government leaves parliament in an unacceptable condition,” Putin said.

Estonia ratings outlook cut to stable from positive

LONDON - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it has revised its outlook on the Republic of Estonia to stable from positive because its EMU membership could be delayed.

The 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term sovereign credit ratings were affirmed.

S&P credit analyst Eileen Zhang said: 'The near-term prospects for Estonian EMU accession have receded, due to the higher inflationary trend rooted in buoyant domestic demand as well as in higher-than-expected global energy prices.'

She added: 'Nevertheless, the ratings on Estonia remain supported by a strong track record on fiscal control, a competitive economy, and the prospect of adopting the euro by 2010.'

Despite a tendency for Estonian governments to be unstable, the country has established a sustained record of tight fiscal control since independence. Thanks to budget surpluses, Estonia's general government debt burden will remain exceptionally low, at less than 5 pct of GDP through to 2009.

The Estonian economy is forecast to expand by more than 7 pct per year, with investment accounting for almost one third of GDP.

Achieving real economic convergence with more highly rated sovereigns, however, remains a significant challenge and is a major constraint for the ratings on the sovereign.

The ratings are also constrained by Estonia's tendency to run sustained and high current account deficits, and external liquidity remains exceptionally weak. As euro adoption is likely to be delayed, the risk posed by significant external imbalances will persist as a major rating factor.

Dudayev`s widow to be granted Estonian citizenship

TALLINN - The widow of Chechnya’s first president and separatist leader has applied for Estonian citizenship, a government official said Friday.

Alla Dudayeva, 59, first asked the Estonian government to grant her citizenship in 2003, but her request was denied because she did not reside in the country. Her late husband, Dzhokhar, who led Chechnya’s separatists from 1991 until his death in 1996, had commanded a Soviet division of strategic bombers based in Estonia in the 1980s.

However, this year the Estonian parliament passed legislative amendments allowing the government to grant citizenship to non-residents “for exceptional merits.”

Dudayeva’s application could be considered by the end of the year, said Aarne Veedla, a political adviser to the Estonian minister of population affairs. Dudayeva and her 23-year-old son are currently living in Lithuania.

Dzhokhar Dudayev became president of the newly declared Chechen Republic in October 1991 and declared independence from the Russian Federation the following month. He was killed on April 21, 1996 by a precision-guided bomb when he was using a satellite phone after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft.

Source : RIAN

Russian minister to honor uncontroversial Soviet heroes in Estonia

* Russia's Transport Minister Igor Levitin will lay flowers at the graves of the Soviet-era singer George Ots and the World War II aviator, Endel Puusepp – two graves that were chosen by the Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communications.
In preparation for the visit, Russia had requested the minister be allowed to lay flowers at a grave of a former Soviet hero. A spokesman from the Estonian ministry told BNS they had chosen Puusepp, who bombed Berlin and Koenigsberg during World War II, as being more or less acceptable.
"That's a thing that shouldn't cause any complications to us," he said.

Anarchists picket outside Russian Embassy

TALLINN - Anarchists held a picket in front of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn yesterday afternoon, calling for the relief of political prisoners detained in St. Petersburg during a G8 summit protest.
Spokespeople for the North prefecture told the Baltic News Service that 30 people had gathered near the embassy building on Pikk Street in Tallinn’s Old Town.
Leaflets distributed by the protesters called for the immediate release of political prisoners in Russia, and a similar call could be read from letters printed on the protesters’ shirts.
The rally was organized by Estonia’s anarchist movement PunaMust.

Estonians on the verge of a nervous breakdown

* It doesn't take much to ruin a nice trip. Estonian Air only has to land four of its flights in a row at 11pm at Tallinn Airport (it doesn't even matter which malfunctions they've had) and there are queues everywhere.

Instead of 10-15 minutes, it took Arko Olesk more than an hour on Tuesday to get home from the airport.

Haapsalu : Catering in need of renovation

* To some places summer and tourists come unexpectedly, writes Erkki Bahovski. He says that, for example, dining places in Haapsalu are in a very poor condition.

He hopes that eateries all around Estonia are able to pull themselves together and take the high summer season more seriously.

Tallinn passes regulations forcing taxi drivers to clean up their act

TALLINN - Taxis in Tallinn will be forced to display their fares in both English and Estonian and negligent drivers will be slapped with hefty fines after new regulations go into effect this week. The dual language requirement is part of the Tallinn City Council’s initiative to develop a transparent and honest pricing system in the city’s fleet of taxis. Fed up with the taxi service’s poor image, the council has also threatened drivers with fines of up to EEK 12,000 (EUR 766 ) for disobeying regulations.