BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonia's priorities in the EU

* ESTONIAN PRIORITIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION DURING THE FINNISH PRESIDENCY

GENERAL AFFAIRES

Estonia will seek to uphold the discussions on the Constitutional Treaty and the future of the European Union.We support exploring the possibilities to enhance the functioning of the EU in the framework of existing treaties, without harming the perspectives of the Constitutional Treaty.

Estonia supports the continuation of the EU enlargement process offers a clear motivation for the countries in transition to carry out necessary economic and social reforms. Estonia supports the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in January 2007, provided they are ready, and welcomes the opening of negotiations with Croatia and Turkey in chapters that have been positively evaluated in the screening process. We hope that the upcoming discussions on enlargement will focus on the broader enlargement strategy, without putting too much emphasis on its specific aspects. The absorption capacity of the EU is an important consideration, but it should not become another accession criterion.

COMPETITIVENESS

Estonia’s goal is to raise the competitiveness fthe EU and to promote the creation of better conditions for the implementation of the initiatives supporting this objective in the Member States. We also look forward to further progress in developing the EU’s research and innovation policies. Estonia supports the implementation of the National Reform Programmes for Growth and Jobs and an in-depth and comparable analysis of the results. Another important objective is the development of innovation policy through the improvement of the functioning of the markets, simplification of regulations concerning the registration of enterprises, increasing the demand side of innovation, mobility of researchers and promotion of university-enterprise cooperation. In respect to the establishment of the European Institute of Technology, Estonia prefers better use of existing opportunities by supporting a bottom-up initiative, a market-oriented and network-based structure which is flexible and transparent and fully uses the potential of existing research institutions.

Estonia wishes to join the Eurozone as soon as possible.The Government aims to be ready for the adoption of the euro in 2007 and accession to Eurozone from 1 January 2008. The core task for this is the implementation of National Changeover Plan. To support this goal, the Government will follow an economic policy that supports meeting the convergence criteria. Estonia intends to participate actively in the discussions over the application of Maastricht price stability criterion.

In order to support the continuous growth in competitiveness of the economy, the government would like to avoid any disruption in the implementation of the EU financial programmes. Therefore ......

Appeal for Gerte Axel David

CAN  ANYONE HELP ?

I AM SEEKING HELP IN TRYING TO TRACE MY FATHER.

MY NAME IS GAIL DAVID. I AM FROM ADELAIDE IN  SOUTH AUSTRALIA. I AM
TRYING TO TRACE MY FATHER WHO I BELIEVE LIVES OR LIVED  IN NEW YORK.

I DON'T HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF  INFORMATION BUT I AM HOPING THAT ONE OF YOU MAY KNOW HIM OR HEARD OF  HIM.

HIS NAME IS GERTE AXEL DAVID ( I AM NOT SURE  BUT THAT COULD BE AN
ANGLOSIZED VERTION OF HIS NAME)

HE WAS BORN IN PARNU IN 1928-1929

HE WAS IN A  DISPLACED PERSONS CAMP IN GERMANY AFTER WWII.

HE  THEN MIGRATED TO AUSTRALIA WITH HIS FAMILY

HE  MARRIED MY MOTHER IN ADELAIDE IN 1949 AND AT THAT TIME WAS WORKING IN A TOWN  CALLED WOOMERA.

I BELIEVE HE IMMIGRATED TO THE  UNITED STATES IN THE EARLY 1960'S.

I BELIEVE HE  WORKED FOR THE CHASE MANHATTAN BANK IN THE EARLY 1970'S.

IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE THAT HE IS NO LONGER LIVING, BUT HE MAY  HAVE
OTHER CHILDREN THAT I WOULD LIKE TO CONTACT.

I GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP THAT YOU CAN GIVE ME.
IF  YOU CAN'T HELP PERHAPS YOU COULD DIRECT ME TO SOMEONE WHO CAN.

MY E-MAIL ADDRESS IS : [email protected]

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS E-MAIL
IN ANTICIPATION
GAIL  DAVID

Schengen hopes knocked back to 2008

* The accession of Baltic countries and the other new EU member states to the Schengen zone will be put off by at least one year because the EU is not ready for their integration. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had hoped to join the Schengen zone by 2007, allowing borderless access to each other and the rest of Western Europe.

However, the EU Council of Ministers last week plotted a new timetable for the completion of a new Schengen information system, known as SIS II, which would complicate the integration of new member states.

The EU said it would not be ready to integrate the information systems of new member states until June 2008. The earliest Estonia can hope to join is October 2008. “After the completion of ....

WHO urges action on HIV/AIDS treatment goals

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - The World Health Organisation's European director has called for a redoubling of efforts to provide treatment for all people infected with HIV/AIDS.

"The situation in the region (Europe) remains worrying," Marc Danzon told health ministers and delegates from Europe's 53 WHO members gathered in Copenhagen for their 56th annual summit Monday.

"The accessibility of adapted treatment has clearly improved ... in two years 120,000 new patients have benefited from specialised treatments," Danzon said.

But he said that that while 70 percent of those infected by HIV/AIDS receive treatment, the majority of these are in western Europe.

"A major effort needs to be made to meet the (WHO's) aim of treating all those with the disease by 2010," Danzon added.

UNAIDS and the WHO estimate that 2.3 million people are infected with the HIV virus in Europe, with 250,000 new cases reported annually.

In 2005 "more than 30 European countries reported an increase in the number of cases," according to Danzon who stressed it was "crucial to maintain the effort to treat all those infected and strengthen preventative measures."

The situation is particularly bad in eastern Europe and in central Asia. Estonia, Russia and Ukraine, have the highest HIV/AIDS rates in Europe, according to a UNAIDS report published in November 2005.

The four-day summit at the WHO regional headquarters in Copenhagen is to focus on the challenges of chronic disease and health crises.

Echappée automnale à Tallinn

* Climat singulièrement plus doux, calme et tranquillité, choix plus vaste et prix à la baisse, passé le plein été, les raisons ne manquent pas pour s’évader et profiter sans complexe du charme des vacances tardives parées aux couleurs de l’automne.

Les derniers beaux jours sont particulièrement propices pour découvrir les capitales des pays Baltes et d’Europe centrale et orientale comme le suggère GO Voyages, qui affiche des offres tentantes à l’occasion du week-end de la Toussaint (1er au 5 novembre), avec des forfaits de 5 jours vols A/R, taxes et 4 nuits en petit déjeuner, comme à Tallinn à partir de 330 euros.

Iberdrola to buy 80% of wind farm project

MADRID (AFX) - Iberdrola SA said it has agreed to buy 80% of Raisner, a company promoting the construction of a 150 MW wind farm in Estonia, confirming an earlier report in Expansion.

A company spokesman declined, however, to confirm the EUR 200 mln investment in the project reported by the newspaper.

He said the company expects to obtain the permits necessary to go ahead with the wind farm project in 2007.

The remaining 20% of Raisner is in the hands of local company Adepte.

Dutch dragsters jailed for ten days speeding

TALLINN - Two Dutch nationals are serving a 10 day sentence in an Estonian jail after being caught driving at 135 km/h through a 70 km/h zone in Parnu in the nation’s southwest.

The two men were taking part in The Challenge 2006 Rally, a race from the Netherlands to St Petersburg.

About 50 vehicles drove through Parnu last week. BNS reported that the two men, named Cornelis Box and Joannes Latour, were caught driving their sports cars at 135 km/h and 133 km/h respectively.

On Sept. 6, a Parnu court sentenced the men to immediately serve a sentence of ten days imprisonment.

The two men began their sentences at once, unlike many locals who must wait until a jail cell becomes available before they can begin their sentences.

Homeless Poles too ashamed to leave UK

Rising number who fail to find work are forced to live on the streets

Amelia Hill

Two weeks ago Jozef Bubak, a trained chef and family man, found himself sleeping on the streets. Just seven months earlier he had left his home in Poland determined to earn enough money to return to his wife and children and set up a family restaurant.

Contrary to the stories told back home, however, there was no job waiting for him here. Nor was there accommodation or any support system to help him when his temporary job on a building site ended six weeks ago.

'In Poland, we are told Britain is a country of high wages and plentiful work,' said the 31-year-old Pole. 'But since I arrived I realise that is not necessarily true. When I came to the streets, I was amazed to find so many Polish people already sleeping here, but every night I see more and more new faces.'

An estimated 400,000 Poles are living in Britain, which opened its labour markets to workers from the accession countries of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia when they joined the European Union in May 2004.

But instead of finding the opportunities .....

Toxic spill ship now making waves in the Baltic

* A ship held responsible for a toxic spill which killed three people in Ivory Coast entered a Latvian port yesterday en route for Estonia, causing environmental safety concerns there.

“The Probo Koala will be under very special treatment when it comes into (the Estonian port of) Paldiski,” Allan Gromov of the Estonian Environment Ministry told DPA.

The Probo Koala, a Panamanian-registered tanker chartered by Dutch shipper Trafigura Beheer BV, unloaded several hundred tonnes of toxic petrol waste in the Ivorian capital Abidjan two weeks ago.

The waste found its way onto city rubbish dumps, leaking fumes that killed three people and made more than 1,500 ill.

The scandal led to the collapse of the Ivorian government earlier this week (see lead story on this page).

Now the ship is docked in the Baltic port of Ventspils, Latvia’s largest outlet for Russian oil and petrol, a port spokesman said.

The spokesman would not comment on the ship’s activities in port.

Latvian authorities have not reacted to the ship’s presence. The National Environmental Protection Agency said it was aware of the visit, but maintains it is a case for the regional environmental authority.

It, in turn, maintains the ship is the responsibility of Marine Environment Board. A spokesman for this institution told DPA that it had not been aware of the ship’s visit.

The situation is very different in Estonia, where news of the vessel’s planned arrival at the small western port of Paldiski today has caused consternation.
.......

Poland and Lithuania reconsider hooking-up power grids

* Warsaw- European Union partners Poland and Lithuania are considering hooking up their electrical power grids, Poland's Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak said Thursday. Lithuania is also keen to involve non-nuclear Poland in the construction of a new third nuclear reactor at its Soviet-era Ignalina facility, but no concrete decisions have yet been made.

Fellow EU Baltic states Latvia and Estonia have also been invited to invest in the venture, seen as key to ensuring energy security in a region heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies.

"There have been big changes in the energy supply market in our region in recent years," Poland's Wozniak said, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.

"Estonia and Latvia have hooked up with a big transit cable, Lithuania have confirmed building a transit cable to Sweden and plan to lay a similar cable to Finland," he said, explaining Poland's decision to reconsider hooking up with north-eastern neighbour Lithuania.

Minister Wozniak was speaking at Poland's 16th annual Krynica Economic Forum which runs through to Saturday. Its aim is to facilitate growth in the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe.

Dubbed the "Polish Davos", the event has drawn political and business leaders from across Central and Eastern Europe and beyond to the Polish mountain resort of Krynica.

Three in four Finns have visited Estonia

76 per cent of Finland's adult population has visited Estonia, according to calculations released by Estonia's finance ministry Thursday.

Estonia's southern neighbours, the Latvians, have visited the country almost as frequently, as the corresponding figure for them stands at 73 per cent. Five per cent of Germans and four per cent of Britons have visited Estonia.

"The figures are impressive, when one takes into account the large populations of these countries. At the same time they indicate how important tourism is to Estonia," Estonia's finance minister, Edgar Savisaar, said Thursday.

Tourism accounts for eight per cent of Estonia's gross national product and employs a corresponding proportion of the country's working age population.

No disrespect to anyone, but many know the reasons why 3/4 of them are ... ! and why they come back ever so often. It has been announced by everyone so very many times before.

Nearly 50 World War II, Soviet mines found off Estonia

By DAVID MARDISTE

Dozens of World War II and Soviet-era mines have been found off the coast of Estonia during a clearance operation involving 27 ships from 14 countries, a spokesman for the exercise said on Sept. 7.

Lieutenant Andres Sang said that 47 sea mines had been located, including 20 over the past 24 hours. The mines are in the process of being destroyed.

The mines that were found primarily lay to the north of Naissaar Island not far from the Estonian capital Tallinn, Baltic News Service BNS reported.

Military officials said that the main shipping lanes in the region were cleared after World War II.

Operations to clear the tens of thousands of mines left in the region began in the early 1990s.

We don’t know how many there are, but there were possibly over 80,000 mines laid in the Gulf of Finland and many of these have yet to be cleared," Sang said.

He said that although the mines were full of active explosive material, they were not considered dangerous to shipping.

The danger comes from ... a mine being washed up on shore and someone then tries to open it or hit it," he said. "Then it is possible it could explode."

The mine clearance involved vessels from Britain, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Poland, the Baltic states, Finland, Sweden and Russia.

September 22 events will influence presidential elections

* On September 5, the Council of Russian Communities in Estonia sent an open letter to Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Tallinn mayor Yuri Ratas, where it expressed concern for the fact that elections of the Estonian president, who will be elected by electoral college, are set for September 23. It is said in statement, handed over to REGNUM, that September 23 is dangerously close in political sense to September 22 – the 62^nd anniversary of Tallinn’s liberation from Nazi occupation : “There are quite real concerns that the situation around ‘Bronze Soldier’ Monument at Soviet soldiers’ common grave in Tallinn downtown will influence upon decision of the electoral college on September 23.”      

The Council of Russian Communities in Estonia fears that September 22 may be used by the country’s right forces, which figure on to provoke clashes between National-Radicals and anti-Fascists in order to use the confrontation for political advantages during the presidential elections : “We do not exclude that in connection with Estonian authorities’ ban of any political activity near the monument, on September 22, acts of civil disobedience to authorities and clashes with police, which can result in victims from both sides and unpredictable political consequences, may take place.” In order to avoid conflict escalation, the CRCE called the Estonian premier and the Tallinn mayor to guarantee free access to the common grave and the monument in Tallinn, securing public order in appropriate way, which would prevent from provocations.

The statement’s authors stressed that .....

Estonia : 51% of scientists and engineers are female !

* Eurostat statistics on gender differences among Europe's knowledge workers for the year 2004, published in August 2006, indicate that 50.4% of human resources in science and technology (HRST) in Europe were female. Three quarters of them (77.3%) worked in knowledge-intensive services, such as financial intermediation, education or health.

However, only 29% of the EU's 8.7 million scientists and engineers are women, with the exception of the three Baltic states, where women count for more than half of these professions : 55.5% in Lithuania, 51.4% in Latvia and 51% in Estonia. Scientists and engineers (SE) are a particular interest group in the science and technology workforce as they are more likely to be involved in leading-edge technology in physical, mathematical and engineering occupations and life-science and health occupations.

Europe needs more scientists and researchers to achieve scientific and technological excellence and, as women are currently under-represented in the field of scientific research, the Commission is promoting measures specifically aimed towards encouraging women to take part in European research.

EU proposes new alcohol duties

* Potentially divisive proposals to increase the minimum duty on alcoholic drinks have been unveiled by the European commission.

The current duty rates were set in 1992 and have not been increased since.

The commission fears the rates will become “meaningless” unless they are adjusted to take account of inflation.

Friday’s proposals would see the basic duty rates increase by the rate of inflation between 1993 and 2005 from January 1 2008.

Although member states have asked the commission to come forward with plans for increasing basic duty rates, national governments do not always see eye to eye on the issue.

While minimum rates are set at the EU level, national governments have the right to increase duty rates, which many do on the grounds of public health.

Scandinavian countries in particular have high rates, mainly on public health grounds, but this has led to an increase in cross-border bulk buying of alcohol in countries such as Estonia or Germany that have lower rates.

The commission has insisted its ......

Bush and Rice to pay a visit to Estonia

TALLINN – George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are scheduled to arrive in Estonia as part of the first ever visit by a US president to this country at the end of November, Postimees reported.

Air Force One will land at Tallinn airport late in the evening on Nov. 27. On the following day Bush and Rice will meet the Estonian president at the presidential palace in Kadriorg and with the prime minister of Estonia at Toompea. They will also have a luncheon with top-level Estonian politicians.

In the afternoon Bush and Rice will fly to Riga, where a NATO summit will take place on Nov. 28-29.

While the final decision as regards the US president's visit was made more than a month ago, preparations started significantly earlier, the newspaper said.

Estonia : Unemployment down 45% year on year on September 1st

TALLINN (AFX) - At the beginning of September the jobless rate was 1.6 pct, BNS news service cited the Labour Market Board in Estonia as saying.
The number of jobless was down 2.7 pct from Aug 1, and down 45 pct from a year earlier.
At the beginning of September 13,100 jobless were registered with the Labor Market Board ...

Although, as everywhere else, one has to be very careful with that type of given figures ...

In Estonia, should you not go to the Employment Office at least ONCE a month, then you are taken away from the list of registered people ... ! It says it all ......... especially when you notice the number of people in the streets of Tallinn alone, not talking about the rest of Estonia ..

And then, of course, unemployed people don't feel the urge to register since in any a case, the amount they can get may be just no more than EEK 400.00/EUR 25.50 per month .... as they are not garanteed to be offered a job .. and so working "on the black" still very much goes on.

Tele2 begins 3G network tests

Tele2 Eesti, Estonia’s largest alternative telco, has begun testing its W-CDMA network in the central district of the capital Tallinn in conjunction with Siemens. The company said it expects to have the next generation mobile network in commercial operation by the final quarter of the year, and hopes to expand its coverage to other parts of the capital.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Tele2 was awarded a 3G concession in August 2003. It originally expressed a keen interest in network sharing, although neither of its rivals were as keen to participate and it was eventually forced to proceed with the rollout alone. In January 2006 it contracted Siemens to build it a complete W-CDMA 3G network. Siemens will also be supplying Tele2 with radio and core equipment for its GSM network and upgrading existing circuit- and packet-switched network elements to ready them for W-CDMA operation. Tele2 is obliged by the terms of its licence to launch 3G by 2010.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN ESTONIA

EUGENY GOLIKOV,
Social Scientist, Tallinn

Eurasian Home : “What does the procrastination of the Estonian president election process mean ? Is it a sign of the permanent local confrontation of the parliamentary parties for political domination, or does this indicate the significant ideological and program differences in the Estonian society ?”

The presidential election transfer from Riigikogu to the Electoral College shouldn’t be regarded as procrastination. This is rather an established procedure typical for Estonian political system. 

Before the presidential election many policy-makers, including Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, spoke for the Parliament to elect the president, but for that a qualified majority of 68 votes is needed. The present political forces configuration did not allow neither Riigikogu Speaker Ene Ergma nor EU Parliament Member Toomas-Hendrik Ilves to get the necessary number of votes. So, the issue was passed to the Electoral College as it had been done before.

Another matter is that presidential election brought to light cleavages in the Estonian political space. I should say, this cleavages are more telling and important than the election itself. The main consideration is president’s role in the political life of Estonia, which is an exemplary parliamentary republic, is not of great significance.

The presidential election issue comes to be fundamental only when we consider different concepts of the future socioeconomic and political development of Estonia. Strictly speaking, now Estonia, as, probably, many other New Independent States, witnesses a ......

Young acrobats of Tallinn

By Joel Alas

TALLINN - In Estonia, “circus” is still a dirty word. Call it an experimental movement. Call it expressive gymnastics. But if you want to be taken seriously, don’t call it circus.

While most of Europe and North America acknowledges the circus as a highly respectable art form, here in the Baltics many people still associate “tsirkus” (the Estonian word) with negative experiences during Soviet times.

“People remember a hot and dirty tent that smells of shit. They think of bears and animals that look tortured and sick. They don’t want to go there again,” says Kaja Kann. Kann is one of a handful of circus performers trying to change people’s opinions of her art.

Better known as a professional dancer and choreographer, Kann spends her free time practicing circus stunts such as corde lisse, which involves climbing, wrapping, dropping, hanging and spinning oneself on a hanging rope.

But her real challenge comes in teaching others circus sports. Kann runs Our Circus (Oma Tsirkus), one of only two circus-training classes in Estonia. She has about 20 students, aged between five and 16.

They meet twice a week in a dance studio in the center of Tallinn to tumble, salto, juggle and dangle from various apparatuses hung from the ceiling.

Watching the class train is inspiration in motion. They are a small group, desperate for resources, limited in their access to instruction and equipment. And yet they have developed amazing skills that would grant them access to circuses across the globe.

But it hasn’t come easily, Kann says.
“At first, it was very difficult to get the parents to .....