BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Droits de l'homme en Estonie : les critiques de l'ONU corroborent les préoccupations de Moscou

MOSCOU - La Russie a estimé lundi que les critiques émises par le Comité de l'ONU pour l'élimination de la discrimination raciale (CERD) confirmaient la justesse de ses préoccupations quant à la situation des droits de l'homme en Estonie.

Réuni le 18 août à Genève pour sa 69e session, le Comité de l'ONU pour l'élimination de la discrimination raciale "a critiqué la politique de Tallinn dans le domaine de la lutte contre les différentes formes de discrimination, notamment en matière de respect des droits des minorités ethniques en Estonie", a déclaré dans un communiqué le ministère russe des Affaires étrangères.

Les critiques se fondaient sur les rapports périodiques de l'Estonie sur l'exécution de ses engagements dans le cadre de la Convention internationale sur l'élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination raciale.

Le CERD onusien a notamment constaté, poursuit le ministère russe, que "La définition officielle du terme de "minorité ethnique" consacrée par la législation estonienne n'inclut pas les personnes appartenant à la catégorie dite des non-ressortissants".

"Cette situation, selon le Comité, .....

800 homeless : Britain doesn't want any more migrants !

* More than 800 migrant workers from eastern Europe have already registered themselves as homeless in Scotland.

The first study to examine the issue of homelessness among "A8 migrants" - those workers from the newest countries to join the European Union - has found that many are living in cramped and overcrowded conditions. As many migrant workers live in tied accommodation, they are more vulnerable to becoming homeless if they lose their job.

The Scottish Council for Single Homeless (SCSH), which carried out the research, has called for the Scottish Executive to provide local authorities with clearer guidance on how to handle homeless applications from migrants and to clear up much of the confusion surrounding their legal duties.

The SCSH survey shows that between February 2005 and 2006 more than 800 migrant workers from the A8 states - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia - made homeless applications to local authorities in Scotland.

Of the total of 50,058 homeless applications received over the period, 833 came from migrant workers, which is about 1.6% of all applications.
The highest proportion of applications from A8 migrants was to be found in the area that includes Moray, Aberdeenshire, Dundee and Angus councils. Just 172 migrant workers applied for assistance in this region, but they made up 3.26% of all applications.

In the opposite corner of the country, in the region that includes Dumfries and Galloway, and North, South and East Ayrshire councils, just 0.69% of applications for assistance with homelessness were from migrant workers.

Estonian Q2 average wage up 15 pct from year earlier

TALLINN  - The average monthly gross wages and salaries of full-time and part-time employees in Estonia came to 9,531 kroons (609 eur) in the second quarter of 2006, an increase of 15 pct over the same period a year ago, reported BNS newswire citing the Statistical Office said.

Estonian parliament fails to elect president

TALLINN - Estonia’s deputy parliamentary speaker Ene Ergma narrowly failed yesterday in her bid to be elected president of the Baltic state by her fellow lawmakers, paving the way for a fresh vote with a different candidate.

Ergma, 62, a relative newcomer to politics, garnered 65 votes in the 101-member legislature, three voices short of the 68 votes required to take up the office of the largely figurehead presidency.

"As Ene Ergma did not receive a two-thirds majority in parliament, the national election commission has decided not to consider her elected into office," Heiki Sibul, chairman of the election commission, told parliament.

Lawmakers will vote in a second round today, when the four parties that backed Ergma – the centre-right Reform Party, Pro Patria, and Res Publica, as well as the Social-Democratic Party – will nominate European lawmaker and former foreign minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves, 52, as their new candidate.

But the second round is also likely to be inconclusive, as two left-leaning parties – the Centre Party and the People’s Union – have said their lawmakers will abstain, just as they did during the vote for Ergma yesterday.

If the parliamentary vote is inconclusive today, voting will go to a 347-member electoral college, made up of the 101 members of parliament and 246 representatives of local government.

President Arnold Ruutel has said that he would stand for re-election, only if the presidential vote goes to the electoral college round.

The Centre Party and People’s Union have called on their lawmakers to abstain in the parliamentary rounds of voting, because they back 78-year-old Ruutel’s candidacy. The incumbent is widely expected to win the electoral college round.

Ergma said that she is .........

Estonian parties name Ene Ergma as presidential candidate

* Three Estonian parties on Saturday formally named deputy parliamentary speaker Ene Ergma as their candidate for Monday's presidential elections, according to reports from Estonian capital of Tallinn.

The three parties, namely, the Union of Pro Patria and Respublica, the Reform Party and the Social Democratic Party, agreed on Aug. 10 to name Ergam as their first-choice presidential candidate, and former foreign minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves as their second-choice one.

But the parties that back Ergma are three votes short the 68 seats Ergma needs in the 101-member single-chamber parliament to become the country's first woman president.

Two other groupings, the center left' People's Union and the Center Party, which have 33 seats in parliament, have been jointly pushing for the re-election of incumbent President Arnold Rüütel.

Under the Estonian constitution, a candidate needs more than two-thirds of the parliamentary votes to win the Baltic country's largely figurehead presidency for a five-year term.

Ergma, 62, an astrophysicist, entered politics just three years ago ... !

Estonian rising imports widens trade deficit in June

* Estonian trade balance showed a deficit of 3.7 billion kroons up 0.6 billion kroons from prior month, Statistics Estonia said Friday. The deficit was 2.5 billion kroons in previous year.

According to preliminary data, the value of total foreign trade stood at 24.3 billion kroon in June. This represented a 3% rise from previous month. Year-over-year the value of total foreign trade jumped 31% in June.Exports rose 1% monthly to 10.3 billion kroon. While yearly it reflected a 28 % climb.

Imports accounted for 58% of the total foreign trade in June. Imports climbed 5% monthly to 14 billion kroon and scaled 33% up from previous year.

EU countries accounted for 64% share of the total Estonian exports in June. Last year, their share was 79%.The share of CIS countries improved to 10% in June from 8% last year. Finland, Sweden and United States were the major Estonian exports market.

There was notable growth in the export of mineral products, machinery and equipment, metals and metal products, transport equipment and leather and leather articles. While, exports of textiles declined significantly.

In June, EU countries' share of imports was 73% down from 79% last year. CIS countries claimed 17%in Estonian imports. Last year imports from CIS countries stood at 10%. Finland, Russian Federation and Germany were the dominant exporters to Estonia.

Imports of mineral products, transport equipment, metals, raw materials chemical products, machinery and equipment rose substantially. While imports of agricultural products and food preparations in June slipped from previous year.

Stag nights are awful – just ask the medieval strippers of Tallinn

Peter Ross

LAST Friday evening, on a train from King’s Cross to Waverley, I witnessed a sight so foul it made me want to scoop out my eyeballs, hurl them down the carriage and plug the stinging sockets with vinegary silverskin onions. A group of young men were travelling from London to Edinburgh on a stag weekend. They had posh accents and – apart from the burly chap in the French maid outfit – expensive clothes. It soon became clear they worked in the City. Although it wasn’t possible to say exactly what they did, my first impression was that they were a bunch of merchant bankers, and I saw nothing in their subsequent behaviour to alter my opinion.

We were somewhere around Durham when the lager took hold. Air authorities are currently going to great lengths to prevent terrorists combining two volatile liquids; if only the same pains were taken by the rail network. These guys were mixing Stella and Stoli with little regard for the potentially explosive results of the resulting compound, and sure enough, as the train hurtled past Durham Cathedral, critical mass was reached.

Two of the stag party had been arguing about something or other and, having reached the limits of their articulacy, decided to settle the matter with a physical contest. They stripped off and hauled themselves up on to opposite luggage racks, then raced each other to the end of the carriage, dragging their bodies slowly and painfully along. We passengers below thanked our stars the luggage racks weren’t the see-through kind you get on some modern trains, but it was still unpleasant. Imagine a brace of plucked and hobbled turkeys crawling away from Bernard Matthews’s factory.

It is bizarre that men feel ......

The commander of the Estonian defense forces resigns

TALLINN - The commander of the Estonian defense forces, Vice Adm. Tarmo Kouts, has tendered his resignation to President Arnold Ruutel today, BNS reported.

"I have fulfilled my task as commander of the defense forces," Kouts said in a statement. "The goals that were set out when I assumed the post have been achieved," he said.

Estonia is a full-fledged member of NATO and the European Union and the Estonian defense forces have successfully integrated with the NATO military structure, Kouts said.

He added that the balanced model of national defense chosen by Estonia, in which there are professional units along with a reserve based on conscript service, allows to be flexible in meeting one's commitments.

What Estonia says about Russia : 3rd decade August 2006

* The national press is blaming Russia for traffic jams at the Russian-Estonian and Russian-Latvian borders. Newspapers are writing that lines of trucks appeared at the borders after the Russian president expressed his discontent with rampant corruption in the customs, and ineffective efforts against smuggling.

Moreover, Russian customs officials may be deliberately creating these lines for political ends. "There is an obvious link between lines of trucks in Narva and developments in Russian-Estonian relations... The artificial traffic jams at the border are the Russian way of protecting compatriots." (Postimees, August 21.)

City Council proposes banning occupation symbols

TALLINN - The Tallinn City Council backed an initiative by the opposition Reform Party proposing that the government ban a display of occupation regime symbols at public events.

Tallinn asked the government to prohibit the use of the flag, the coat of arms and other official symbols of countries which have occupied the Republic of Estonia. Clearly identifiable symbols that instigate hatred are also included in the ban.

The Ministry of Justice has already embarked a bill of this effort on a coordination round from ministry to ministry.

According to the bill, the ban would apply to the public display and dissemination of symbols representing the Soviet Union and its constituent republics, the Nazi German party and the S.S..

The ministry clarified that these symbols can be used for education, research, artistic, commercial and journalistic purposes.

Mission to Estonia—Concluding statement

Estonia's liberal economic institutions and macroeconomic stability—underpinned by the successful currency board arrangement (CBA)—have fostered exceptionally fast economic convergence. However, tightening macroeconomic conditions, exacerbated by rapid credit growth and new labor market opportunities abroad, are testing the resilience of labor and product markets and the sustainability of external competitiveness. This calls for a decisive policy response: fiscal tightening, focused on the overheating nontraded goods sector, and sustained supervisory vigilance over lending decisions that increasingly are made abroad. These policies should also support euro adoption, which is a key policy priority.

Background

1. Estonia's rapid economic growth stems from its liberal economic institutions and conservative financial policies. Real living standards now surpass those in most new member states of the European Union. Increasing trade and financial integration are offering new opportunities, but also creating imbalances. The challenge now is to implement policies that minimize the resulting risks to macroeconomic stability while continuing to profit from access to foreign markets and technologies.

2. In the last year and a half economic growth has proceeded at an unsustainable pace. Real GDP growth is projected at about 9½ percent in 2006, slightly below its 2005 level. While net exports made a positive contribution to demand in 2005, domestic demand is accelerating and the external current account deficit is expected to deteriorate to about 12 percent of GDP in 2006 despite continued strong export growth. The labor market has reached, if not exceeded, full employment, and wage pressures are evident in sectors affected by strong demand or foreign job opportunities. Labor shortages have emerged across many skill levels. Consumer confidence is at an all-time high, despite indications of a welcome respite in the buoyant real estate market. Investment remains strong, though the recent focus on construction may be at the expense of investments embodying new technology.

3. Inflation is in the low single digits but remains above the euro area average—as expected in a rapidly converging economy. The peg to the euro, combined with rapid economic convergence, implies that the ......

United take another kick at the Baltics

By Paul Gilder

* Having brushed aside the league leaders of Latvia this summer, Newcastle will return to the Baltic States next month to continue their Uefa Cup campaign against a team who boast a 17-point advantage in the Estonian championship table.

And although Glenn Roeder knows little about FC Levadia Tallinn, his scouting staff will ensure the St James's Park manager has a detailed dossier on the club's next opponents in Continental competition within the next seven days.

The first leg of the first round tie has already been moved from Levadia's modest ground to Estonia's national stadium, with the 8,700-capacity A. Le Coq Arena able to accommodate 4,000 more supporters than .......

Estonia : The Year 2009 and Estonian corporate taxation system

by Priit Lätt and Rainer Eidemiller

* On 1 January 2009, the transition period granted to Estonia for harmonising the Income Tax Act with the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive will come to an end. The Estonian Income Tax Act does not tax the income earned by companies upon its receipt, but rather upon distribution. Hence, it is disbursements, including dividends that are subject to taxation. However, the directive prohibits the subjecting to income tax of profit distributable by a subsidiary of one member state to a parent of another member state, if the parent’s holding in the subsidiary is greater than 10% as of 1 January 2009.

Automatic transposition of the tax exemption specified in the directive, to the current Estonian taxation system, would mean that the income of a company which is owned by a company of another member state would not be taxed in Estonia, neither upon its receipt nor upon its distribution as dividends to a parent undertaking of another member state. It is understandable that what is feared, upon the granting of such a tax exemption, is a negative impact on the Estonian state budget, as well as Estonia gaining the reputation of being a tax heaven, as well as the unequal treatment of companies with local and foreign holdings.

1. The reestablishment of the corporate income tax that was applicable in Estonia until 1999 ?

To harmonise the Estonian Income Tax Act with the directive, the Estonian Ministry of Finance has analysed six alternative .....

Women World Cup : Estonia's nightmare

Margus Luik

Wales finished Group 8 in style by impressively defeating Estonia 7-0 in Tallinn to win the section ahead of Israel.

As Estonia had recorded a scoreless draw in the corresponding fixture, Wales knew they could be in for a difficult afternoon in the capital. The first half-an-hour was equal, yet Wales never looked back after Jayne Ludlow raced on to Jessica Fishlock's perfect pass behind the defensive line in the 35th minute before beating Estonian goalkeeper Elis Meetua. The Arsenal FC midfielder doubled the advantage inside two minutes, heading in Cheryl Foster's corner.

The hosts suffered a nightmare start to the second half as Wales scored after 38 seconds and added two more in next five minutes with Fishlock scoring twice and Michelle Green once. Substitute Jenna Hopkins scored in the 70th minute and the dying seconds to start Welsh celebrations at the Kadriorg stadium.

Rowing : Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

* Ukraine decided if they were going to do some damage they had better do it at the start. Shooting out at a 43 stroke rate Ukraine gained a slight margin, but there was little in it going through the first 500 with all six crews still very much on the pace. Margins began to stretch out going through the half way point as reigning World Champions Poland took to the head of the field. Poland’s two seat Marek Kolbowicz, 35, and stroke Adam Korol, 32, have been racing together for 10 years and took a bronze in 1998 in the double. Together with Konrad Wasielewski and Michal Jelinski they set a new World Best Time earlier this season at the second Rowing World Cup.

Today, as the wind increased and the swell mounted, the Poles seemed unstoppable. Ukraine held on, Estonia charged, Italy gave it their best shot. Poland defend their World Champion title, an ecstatic Ukraine take silver and Estonia win bronze.

Estonia’s bow Allar Raja : “Our race was not perfect but the result is a good surprise. We are all happy.”

The leader of the mafia, Azerbaijan-born Dutch citizen has been arrested.

* His name is said to be Ikram. Estonian police also arrested one more Azerbaijani-one of the key figures of the smuggling network, who owns a famous restaurant in the Lasnamäe area of Tallinn. One more arrested member of the network is said to be non-Estonian. But his nationality is not made report.

Azerbaijani Ikram is suspected for smuggling great deal of narcotic drugs to Russia from Europe through Estonia. According to official report, this is the largest amount of narcotic drug that ever attempted to smuggle in Russia.

The Central Criminal Police was on Ikram’s trace by accident. Thus, a European state asked legal help from Estonia for investigating the fact on attempt to rob a bank. During the investigation, the police found the trace of a larger network.

The Central Criminal Police chief commissioner Urmo Karpender said the biggest smuggling network has been exposed in Estonia.

More than 80 thousand white and pink narcotic pills, fake seals and stamps for solving migration problem in foreign states and great amount of military supplies were confiscated during the operation. All of these narcotic pills were to be smuggled from the Netherlands in Russia through Estonia. The confiscated narcotic drugs cost totally several million dollars.

The arrested two Azerbaijanis and .........

Estonia to spend EUR 210 million on keeping tourists longer than "1 day" !

Estonia is planning to invest EEK 3.3 billion (EUR 210 million) over the next seven years into tourism development.

The new national tourism development plan for 2007-2013 sets a goal to find new interesting sights and attractions in Tallinn and outside the city in order to make tourists spend more time in Estonia.

The average tourist arrives from Finland in the morning by plane or ship and leaves in the evening.

Most tourists spend time in Tallinn's Old Town. Such tourists bring profit to traders in Tallinn as well as to shipping and airline companies, but they do not help hotels or tourist locations outside the capital.

Homeless World Cup in Cape town and the Estonian team

TALLINN - Six homeless Esto-nians will compete in the fourth annual Homeless Soccer World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported. “The inspiration to begin training was given by Mel Young, founder of Homeless Soccer World Cup, who visited Estonia last year and was one of the main speakers at a management conference in Parnu,” said Artur Taevere, leader of the soccer project and head of Heateo Sihtasutus (Good Act Foundation).

Recruitment began last December, when Taaevere searched several Tallinn homeless shelters for talent. However, finding volunteers proved more complicated than he had expected. “Many people regarded our soccer project as science fiction. It is difficult to motivate homeless people to practice sports,” he said.
But despite the difficulties, seven homeless ............

Hopes to adopt EURO in 2008 drastically reduced

Higher than expected inflation (around 4.5% in 2006 - up 0.8% since spring) forecasts have seriously dented Estonia's hopes of adopting the euro in 2008, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said.

Let's remember that the fixed EU limit is 2.3% !

So it looks like some knew what they were talking about earlier this year when they forecasted "not sooner that 2010" .... Not a very good thing for a country which was so hopeful as to be the first out of the 10 newcomers.

International festival of Graffiti in Jelgava

Sept. 5 – 8
* Graffiti has become an organic part of the contemporary culture and it is important to discuss it as a part of our heritage and culture, not as some fringe artifact. 
The festival will include lectures, discussions, creative workshops and exhibitions with graffiti and stencil artists. Visitors are invited to watch a large-scale painting of “Crash” by eight artists from throughout the Baltic countries.

More info : (+371) 29194997