BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Commission plays down Estonia ferry disaster conspiracy theory

Tallinn — The latest enquiry commission into the sinking of a passenger ferry - the Estonia - in the Baltic Sea in 1994 agreed Thursday with previous probes that a design and construction flaw was most likely to blame for the disaster. The Estonia sank en route from Tallinn in Estonia to Stockholm in Sweden on September 28, 1994, with the loss of 852 lives. There were just 134 survivors from one of the world’s worst maritime disasters.

An Estonian government commission established in 2005 concluded on February 19 that there was no evidence the disaster was linked to the covert transportation of Swedish military equipment on board the vessel.

Previous enquires established that Swedish military intelligence shipped equipment using the Estonia on September 14 and 20, 1994, but the commission found no proof it was carrying a third consignment when it set sail on September 27.

The commission did not entirely rule out the possibility that there may have been a hole in the hull, though an interim report published in 2007 discounted theories that one could have been caused by an explosion of undeclared military ordinance, as some relatives of victims have suggested.

“Such theories cannot be convincingly disproved by theoretical studies based on the existing evidence,” the commission said, adding that only a detailed exploration of the wreck on the sea bed could establish whether the Estonia had been holed.

On the basis of available evidence collected the established theory that the bow doors were poorly designed or constructed remained the most likely scenario, the commission concluded.

Estonia "Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare report Q1 2009"

In the Business Environment Ranking matrix for Q109, Estonia has risen up the rankings, now occupying a joint fourth position, out of the 18 regional markets surveyed, which now include Uzbekistan.

Estonia shares this spot with two other countries, namely the two much larger markets of Turkey and Russia. Despite historically limited public-sector spending on medicines, the market is growing more rapidly than most others across Europe.

This is evidenced by the latest statistics published by state medicines agency Ravimiamet, which show that the country’s pharmaceutical market grew by 12% to reach EEK751.0mn (US$67.8mn) at wholesale prices in Q208.

While the growth rate is considerably below the 2007 levels of around 20%, it is clear that the pharmaceuticals segment continues to outperform other industries in the face of difficult economic conditions, with the growth of retail sales of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics showing few signs of abating.

On the other hand, Estonia’s attractiveness is mitigated by its small population, of only around 1.34mn, which has pushed Tallinn Pharmaceutical Plant (Tallinna Farmaatsiatehas), one of Estonia’s few pharmaceutical companies and a subsidiary of Latvia’s Grindeks, to shift its production out of the country.

Additionally, the country remains vulnerable to external economic shocks, and we expect that the risks to our forecasts are distinctly to the downside. We estimate that the Estonian economy contracted by 1.1% in 2008, with only a mild recovery to 1.2% growth expected for 2009, which will have a negative impact on public sector finances.

Tiiu Kuik - Marie-Claire - Italy 03/2009

Sublime TIIU

  

Magazine: Marie Claire Italia (March 2009)
Editorial: Trancoso – Brasile 20/11/2008
Photographer: David Bellemére

Virginie Razzano defeated Kaia Kinepi

Virginie Razzano reached the biggest final of her career yesterday when she produced her fourth successive upset win to earn a showdown with Venus Williams in the Dubai Open.

The World No 58 from France will also make a substantial leap, somewhere close to the top 40, after beating Kaia Kinepi, the 16th-seeded Estonian, for the loss of only three games.

I try to make a lot of pressure all the time and play aggressive," said the flat-hitting, high-intensity French woman after her stunning 6-1, 6-2 triumph.

By contrast, Kaia looked tired. She had four hard matches and never rediscovered the tenacity which enabled her to upset Jelena Jankovic, the 2008 year-end number one, in the third round.

After going a break of serve down in the fourth game, Kaia could not prevent the first set from sliding quickly away from her, often looking slow by comparison with Virginie's twinkling footwork, upbeat gestures, and dashing attacks, especially down both sidelines.

Andrus Veerpalu in gold

Cross-country skier George Grey led the Canadian contingent on Friday, finishing 21st at the nordic world ski championships in Liberec, Czech Republic.

The 29-year-old from Rossland, B.C., stopped the clock in the 15-kilometre individual start competition in a time of 40 minutes 20.6 seconds.

Estonia's Andrus Veerpalu captured the gold in a time of 38:54.4, while Lukas Bauer of Czech Republic won the silver in 39:00.7. Finland's Matti Heikkinen earned the bronze with a time of 39:10.8.

"It was a solid day for George, but he likely wanted a little more," said Canadian national ski team leader Dave Wood. "It wasn't long ago that George would have been doing handstands with this result, but that has changed now and that is good because it shows how far he has come this year."

Grey, who is the oldest member of the Canadian men's team, has had a resurgence this season.

He was ninth in the prologue race at the Tour de Ski in December, then joined forces with teammate Alex Harvey last month in Whistler, B.C., to finish third in the team sprint event.

"Once you start breaking into the top-10 anything is possible," said Grey earlier this year. "I have been at this a long time and it is just so great to finally break through."

Harvey, of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., was 36th on Friday, while Devon Kershaw, of Sudbury, Ont., was 37th (41:23.1); and Chris Butler, of Thunder Bay, Ont., was 54th (43:00.0).

The men's 15-kilometre pursuit race is slated for Saturday in Liberec.

Support for opposition KESK falls in Estonia

The Estonian Centre Party (KESK) has lost public backing, according to a poll by TNS Emor. 28 per cent of respondents would vote for the Baltic country’s main opposition party in the next legislative election, down seven points since December.

The ruling Estonian Reform Party (ER) is now in the lead with 30 per cent, up one point since December. The Social Democratic Party (SDE) is third with 13 per cent, followed by the Union of Fatherland and Res Publica (IRPL) with 12 per cent, the Estonian Greens (EER) with nine per cent, and the Estonian People’s Union (ERL) with six per cent.

In March 2007, a legislative election took place in Estonia. Final results placed the ER in first place with 27.8 per cent of the vote, followed by the KESK with 26.1 per cent, and the IRPL with 17.9 per cent. In early April, the ER, the IRPL and the SDE agreed to form a government. ER leader Andrus Ansip retained his post as prime minister.

On Feb. 20, Estonia’s government survived a no-confidence motion on its proposed "austerity" budget. Lawmakers supported Ansip’s proposed cuts in spending, which aim at allowing the country to meet established criteria and eventually adopt the euro currency.

Aaviksoo : "Defence expense critics must propose an alternative security solution"

The Minister of Defence of Estonia, Jaak Aaviksoo, was today answering the questions of public representatives, which focused on defence-related procurement, during Question Time in the Riigikogu. The Minister invited the critics of a stable defence budget to enter a public discussion regarding Estonia’s security political solutions.

The Minister of Defence used the dialogue with the members of the Riigikogu to judge the reproaches that interpreted the defence budget of 2009 as a tool for supporting a foreign weapons industry. Mr. Aaviksoo also criticised the allegations that the state was acquiring systems in spite of the difficult economic situation and that the relative share of defence budget to gross domestic product could be cut even more.

“The sitting government has agreed, in the coalition agreement, that national defence expenses will be increased to two per cent of GDP by 2010 to develop the national defence capabilities. In the draft negative budget, submitted to the Riigikogu today, the Government went for a consensus compromise, which involved cutting the defence budget by 667 million Estonian kroons or to 1.75 per cent of the estimated gross domestic product.

Estonia to train Afghan troops with US

TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

TALLINN - The Estonian military has announced that it will work alongside the U.S. in training the Afghan armed forces and police.

There are currently no plans to extend the troops' mandate for training purposes.

Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates during an informal NATO defense ministers meeting in Krakow, Poland to discuss bilateral cooperation.

Initial plans are for Estonia to contribute five to seven personnel to the training teams, but their number may increase later on. It is not planned at present to extend the defense forces' mandate in Afghanistan.

"(The plan) could be implemented already this year," the minister told the Baltic News Service. He said the mission would begin sometime this year.

"Not before Midsummer Day, but definitely before Christmas," the minister said.

He described Estonian soldiers' role in the training as "practical, active military mentorship."

Estonian Railways wishes to suspend pay growth of its employees

Juhan Tere

Estonian Railways (Eesti Raudtee) reported that it will make a proposal to its trade unions to launch negotiations on suspending the pay growth for its employees, writes EPL Online/LETA.

The pay agreement concluded with trade unions last year foresaw increasing wages of the Estonian Railways group as much as the consumer price index since March 1, 2009.

However, the current financial state in the world, in Estonia and in Estonian Railways has changed so much, stated the company, that it is not realistic to fulfil the pay agreement and the agreement needs to be reviewed.

In the first month and a half, the freight volumes transported by EVR Cargo have fallen by 25% in comparison to the previous year. This is caused by the impact of the global economic crisis on consumption of raw materials and goods and it is projected that exports as well as transit and domestic transport will continue falling in near future.

Estonian government may use the money from stabilization reserve !

The additional budget law allows the government to take up to EEK 9 bln loan, in addition the government may take nearly half of stabilization reserves to use, Postimees.ee reports.

>In addition the government may use pension fund money to fill in the temporary budget holes, the government wants to take EEK 3.5 bln of stabilization reserve in use.

>Estonia is in talks with banks. It’s not excluded that the loan amount will be EEK 9 bln.

>In the beginning of January Estonia had reserves in amount of EEK 19 bln. The capacity of reserves went down by fifth in the last months of last year. More than EEK 4 bln are made up by the Health Insurance Fund’s, Unemployment Fund’s and Kredex’ money. The rest is mainly a cash reserve which is managed by the government.

>The draft allows the government to spend EEK 12 bln more than the government has collected.

>According to the draft budget the state expenses will be EEK 91.89 bln and incomes EEK 88.2 bln.

Estonia agrees to receive Guantanamo prisoners !

TALLINN - Estonia has agreed to receive prisoners from the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp that is being closed down, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told reporters after the government’s meeting on Thursday.

“These are not criminals charged with terrorism, but suspects who were not put on trial over the absence of evidence. Therefore after the prison’ s closure they will be fully free,” he said expressing an opinion that prisoners would hardly return to their fatherland for fear of being repressed.

In general, there are around 60 such criminals in Guantanamo.

The United States addressed to the EU with a request to provide them an opportunity to reside in Europe.

“However, this will happen only if they express such a wish,” Paet said.

Estonia: no new ferry disaster probe

Estonia on Thursday decided against opening a new probe into the 1994 Baltic Sea ferry disaster which claimed the lives of 852 victims, discounting claims of a cover up.

• Engine fire forces Baltic ferry evacuation (2 Dec 08)
• Estonia victim families demand new probe (21 Nov 08)
• Estonia report supports official investigation (27 Nov 07)

Estonian government spokeswoman Kateriin Leini told AFP ministers had reviewed a report by a commission which upheld previous findings and concluded there were insufficient grounds to launch a new investigation.

The ferry "Estonia" sank on the night of September 28, 1994, as it sailed from the Estonian capital Tallinn to Stockholm in Sweden.

All but 137 of the 989 passengers and crew on board perished. Most of the victims were Swedish.

An international probe in 1997 ruled that faulty bow doors which gave way in a storm had caused the accident, the worst in the Baltic in peace time.

Comparison of injecting drug users who obtain syringes from pharmacies and syringe exchange programs

Both syringe exchange programs (SEPs) and pharmacy sales of syringes are available in Estonia, though the current high incidence and high prevalence of HIV among injection drug users (IDUs) in Tallinn, Estonia requires large-scale implementation of additional harm reduction programs as a matter of great urgency. The aims of this report were to compare risk behavior and HIV infection and to assess the prevention needs among IDUs who primarily use pharmacies as their source of sterile syringes with IDUs who primarily use SEPs in Tallinn.

Methods: A cross-sectional study using respondent-driven sampling was used to recruit 350 IDUs for an interviewer-administered survey and HIV testing.

IDUs were categorized into two groups based on their self-reported main source for syringes within the last six months. Odds ratios with 95% CI were used to compare characteristics and risk factors between the groups.

Results: The main sources of sterile needles for injection drug users were SEP/SEP outreach (59%) and pharmacies (41%).

Tallinn to reform administrative system

The Tallinn City Council decided on Thursday to amend the Statute of Tallinn with the purpose of reforming the city's administrative system, writes EPL Online/LETA.

According to the city council decision, there will be ten city regions in Tallinn instead of eight city districts and city district governments will be reformed into regional departments.

As the initiator of the proposal, chairman of the Tallinn City Council Toomas Vitsut noted, the administrative reform needs to bring more efficiency into the city government in servicing the residents, save administrative spending and enhance settlement-based identity.

Vitsut stated that the reform is also aimed at de-politicising the regional authorities while the regional departments will be led by civil servants.

The reform which was supported by 35 out of 63 city council members, is planned to be completed by July 1.

Carmen Kass - Vogue - France 03/2009

Estonia to present a piano to the European Parliament

Republic of Estonia will give an Estonian piano to the European Parliament on the occasion of the republic's 90th anniversary, writes the National Broadcasting/LETA.

The gift is also a final chord for a series of musical presents in the framework of which Estonian top-level musical groups performed new Estonian works in five European countries.

The present will be handed over to the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering by minister of culture Laine Jänes. She stated that the piano is a good symbol for introducing Estonian State in Europe as it is the only country that has pianos named after itself.

Estonia introduced itself with musical presents in Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Britain and in Denmark as all of these countries have a special part in Republic of Estonia becoming independent.

Defence Sector Budget to Decrease by 14%

The Defence Minister has submitted the agreed budget cut to the Ministry of Finance, which amounts to 667 million Estonian kroons, resulting in a 14% decrease in the national defence budget or to 1.75% of this year’s estimated gross domestic product.
 
The budget cut is, on the one hand, attributable to the declining economy; therefore, the defence budget dropped by 354 million Estonian kroons. In addition, the budget will be additionally cut below the agreed 1.9% level, in consideration of the general budgeting situation. This means that the total defence sector budget will amount to 4.23 billion Estonian kroons (4.634 billion Estonian kroons with foreign assistance included) in 2009.

According to the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jaak Aaviksoo, when expressed as a percentage, defence expenditures were cut more than the budgets of some other sectors. “The decision is acceptable, considering the difficult budget situation; however, these cuts have real-life consequences and affect our national security. I do still believe that the setback will be of a temporary nature,” remarked the Minister.

The programme of the coalition included the goal of taking the defence budget to the level of two per cent of gross domestic product by 2010. According to Mr. Aaviksoo, a new timeframe must now be established for taking defence expenses to the sanctioned level. “I believe that in principle all of the power-sharing parties have, in principal, supported the NATO-related defence politics and related promises,” Mr. Aaviksoo said.

Estonians should take into consideration major currencies fluctuations

Juhan Tere

Businesses in Estonia, as in most other countries, are facing growing uncertainty and potential financial threats, and one of the reasons for this is international currencies' fluctuations, BBN/LETA reported, referring to an article from Jacob Strandgaard Andersen, the associate with MAQS Law Firm in Tallinn, member of the Danish Bar Association and Johan Maunsbach Associate with MAQS Law Firm in Tallinn.

The four currencies having importance for Estonian businesses – the U.S. Dollar, the Swedish Krona, the British Pound and the Russian Rouble – have decreased 10-20% in value against the Estonian Kroon and the Euro. The effects were immediate on the Estonian business. Outstanding payments for goods or services promptly decreased, and profit on otherwise lucrative contracts might be lost as well. At the same time, Estonian goods and services loose competitiveness for this reason.

Historically, other countries have dealt with the effects of currency devaluations and currency fluctuations, and businesses have had to deal with these realities before. Denmark and Sweden have felt the effect of devaluations before, and the question is if there are lessons to be learned from this experience.

Estonia is going to change its taxation system

Eesti Päevaleht : the Minister for Finances Ivari Padar stated that the Government will change Estonia’s taxation system during preparing the State budget for the next year, writes LETA.

The dramatic events in the past six months have clearly indicated that we will not be able to make ends meet with the current taxation system," stated Padar in his article in Eesti Päevaleht. He noted that the new taxation policy will mean that the income tax cannot be lowered any more while according to current laws, the individuals´income tax rate will fall to 20% next year.

The sales revenue of Estonian Prisma has grown by 10%

Juhan Tere

the Prisma’s turnover amounted to 2.089 billion kroons in 2008, has grown by 10 % in comparison to the year 2007

The retailer's profits earned during the year 2008 amounted to 65.3 million kroons – a couple of dozen kroons less than in 2007.

"Our objective is to gain new customers through a favorable pricing policy and thus far we have been very successful in this purpose," said the managing director of AS Prisma Peremarket Janne Lihavainen.

He noted that the Prisma stores in Finland have survived the economic crisis there and gained market share during that time. "It is apparent that the strengths of the Prisma concept are also working during the current crisis in Estonia," said Lihavainen.

The purpose of AS Prisma Peremarket for this year is to expand its business and to invest the profits accumulated during the years thus far.

Prisma started operating in Estonia in 2000. By now, there are five Prisma stores in Estonia and the retailer’s market share is 8% in Estonia.