BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Hanno Pevkur : over 3,000 people have found jobs in Estonia in 2010 with the help of the state

Estonian social minister Hanno Pevkur said at the Baltic social ministers’ meeting on Friday in Jurmala that over 3,000 people have found work in Estonia in 2010 thanks to wage support, traineeship and business launch support, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

Pevkur said that the number of job offers has also increased considerably as compared to the beginning of the year and as the result of all that, registered unemployment in Estonia has stayed at 14.6% for four weeks in a row.

Pevkur added that he is especially glad that for the first time since the start of the crisis, this week showed that a in a whole 8 out of Estonia’s 15 counties joblessness decreased.

“I would like to hope that we are at a breaking point now but the coming weeks and months will show whether the positive trend of the recent weeks will continue or not,” said Pevkur.

But this could only be due to the fact that 3000 more unemployed people do not get their unemployment allowances any longer!

Juhan Tere

Estonian Baruto Kaito's rough road to the top

"It hasn't sunk in yet," said Estonian sumo wrestler Baruto Kaito, 25, referring to his scheduled promotion to ozeki, the second highest rank among professional sumo wrestlers.

Born in the former Soviet bloc republic of Estonia, Baruto, whose real name is Kaido Hoovelson, made his debut as a professional sumo wrestler at the age of 19. Due to his unique and friendly character, he is always popular among other sumo wrestlers in the dressing room at sumo arenas. In addition to Japanese, Baruto, who just got married last year, is fluent in Russian and German.

With a height of 198 centimeters and a weight of 188 kilograms, the European athlete may have a physical advantage as a sumo wrestler. However, the road to his success was neither quick nor effortless.

His father was a cattle farmer, and Baruto helped his family with heavy labor since his childhood.

"I had never thought it was painful because I knew how hard our family business was," he recalls.

When he was 16, Baruto started practicing judo and became a national junior champion; however, after his father passed away around the same time, he had to start working as a bar bouncer to earn a living.

Monte Carlo tops hotel price list

People really do have to break the bank to stay in Monte Carlo, according to a hotel price guide.

Monte Carlo hotels were the most expensive in the world for UK travellers in 2009, averaging £172 a night, a survey by Hotels.com found.

Despite a 27% drop on 2008 prices, Moscow was in second place, with its hotel rooms averaging £169 last year.

Abu Dhabi was the third most expensive destination last year, with hotel prices averaging £159. New York (£149) was fourth and Geneva (£144) was fifth.

The city with the least-expensive hotels last year was Riga in Latvia, where rooms dipped 8% to just £55. You could get a hotel room in Orlando, Florida, for just £57 last year, with Tallinn in Estonia (£59), Las Vegas (£60) and Kuala Lumpur (£65) all offering good value as well..

Prices rose sharpest last year in Istanbul with the average cost of a room going up 16% to £109. Tel Aviv prices rose 15% to £120, with Rio de Janeiro prices rising 13% to £117.

Nato allies are Baltic states’ eyes in the sky

ZOKNIAI AIR BASE - Colonel Sebastien Vallette swings back in his desk chair, minutes after landing his Mirage fighter on a Soviet-era runway.

A detailed map on his wall shows Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, flanked by bold warnings: “Do Not Enter Russian Airspace”.

For six years, Nato allies have taken turns patrolling the airspace of the three Baltic states, minnows which won freedom from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and have testy ties with Moscow.

Vallette and six other French flyers under his command are the current eyes in the sky.

“The point about airspace sovereignty is to know who’s doing what in it,” Vallette told AFP at Zokniai, a huge, mostly-mothballed facility in northern Lithuania where 20,000 Red Army troops were once based.

“It’s a combination of deterrence, protection, prevention and assistance,” he added.

Vallette acknowledged Baltic history is “complicated”, but rejected suggestions his job is about warning the resurgent Kremlin, which only withdrew its forces in 1994.

“Everyone wants to put Russia in focus, but there isn’t a special focus,” he insisted. “All countries conduct surveillance in their national airspace. There isn’t a concept of a particular threat.”

The Baltic trio joined Nato on March 29, 2004. The air patrols began immediately.

Red Bulls beat Fire 1-0 in 1st MLS game at stadium

Estonian midfielder Joel Lindpere scored on a sparkling 19-yard shot in the 40th minute of his Major League Soccer debut, and New York opened the season by beating the Chicago Fire 1-0 Saturday night in the first official match at $200 million Red Bull Arena.

It was 39 degrees at gametime, 34 degrees coolor than the previous Saturday when the stadium opened with the Red Bulls beating Brazil's Santos 3-1 in an exhibition. Perhaps that's why there were pockets of empty blue seats at the 25,000-seat, two-deck stadium, where attendance was announced at 24,572.

New York improved to 4-0-3 in its last seven home openers and made MLS home teams 4-1-3 in the first games of soccer-specific stadiums, with Kansas City winning 1-0 at Toronto's BMO Field in 2007. The Red Bulls ended a five-game losing streak against Chicago.

There were few good chances before the goal by Lindpere, a 28-year-old signed last month from Tromso in the Norwegian arctic. New York goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul made a leaping save to deny Mike Banner on a free kick from just behind the arc in the 61st minute, then stopped Baggio Husidic on the rebound. He made an easy stop on Patrick Nyarko's 10-yard header in the 79th.

Former U.S. national team star Brian McBride nearly put Chicago ahead in the 23rd minute with an 18-yard bicycle kick that went on a hop off the post to Coundoul's right.

Rein Taaramae second of stage 6 in Catalunya

BARCELONA - French team Cofidis had a double reason to celebrate on Saturday as Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin and teammate Rein Taaramae of Estonia seized the top two places in Stage 6 of the Tour of Catalunya.

The teammates overpowered a 48-strong pack in the uphill sprint in Barcelona's Montjuich park, where the sixth stage of the Tour de France finished last year.

Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain was third and kept the race lead.

"It was the same finish as the Tour but the very different final approach route today meant I could go for the win," the 29-year-old Dumoulin told reporters.

"We dropped the top sprinters because it was a tough finale, but as I'm a small guy I could handle the climbs better and then use my power to take the sprint.

"Getting first and second on the stage was more circumstantial than planned. Rein's lying third overall so we wanted to keep control of his rivals by staying close to the front and then with 200 meters to go I decided to go for it."

Cofidis announced on Friday that they were extending their sponsorship of the team until the end of 2012.

Sjomkin victorious in Estonia

Finnish professional boxing stable Caramelito Promotions continues its busy and successful spring season. Estonian super middleweight boxer Anton Sjomkin (now 4-1, 3 KO) who recently joined in the stable was fighting against durable Russian Maxim Nikanorov over 4 rounds last weekend in a show which was promoted by Russian Jab Promotion and Estonian Energia Boxing Club. Sjomkin who won vacant Baltic Boxing Union International Super Middleweight title on his latest fight against previously unbeaten Sami Selesmaa (FIN) was now fighting his first pro fight as Caramelito Promotions boxer..

Although Nikanorov started to bleed from his nose already during the first round he was able to offer a tough challenge for hard-hitting Sjomkin. After the final bell Sjomkin, who was this time concentrating on body punches more than in his previous bouts, was announced as a clear winner by unanimous decision.

-Anton Sjomkin had good fight and it was very useful for him to get a bit more rounds at this point of his career. In future Sjomkin is willing to fight against anybody anywhere and of course we are open for any inquiries, says Markus Lammi who works as matchmaker and promoter for Caramelito Promotions.

Estonia statistics

Estonian transport enterprises had a difficult year
According to Statistics Estonia, the sharp decrease of freight volume of transport enterprises in Estonia continued in 2009. The freight turnover decreased by 13% and the economic crisis affected remarkably the road transport enterprises. Passenger transport did not change significantly.

General Government budget’s deficit decreased
According to preliminary data of Statistics Estonia, in 2009 the Estonian general government sector deficit was 1.7% and gross debt level was 7.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the 4th quarter the Estonian general government sector surplus was 4.3 billion kroons.

In January exports grew on account of mineral products
According to Statistics Estonia, in January 2010 exports of goods grew by 11% and imports declined by 3% compared to the same month of 2009. The increase in exports was mainly influenced by the steep growth in the dispatches of oil products and fuel oils.

Estonians too passive ?

While the Estonian parliament wrestled with a new bill that would raise the age at which residents can begin receiving their pensions, a journalist sent me a few questions: Why don’t Estonians take to the streets to protest unpopular government decisions? How come Estonians prefer to cower behind anonymous Internet comments rather than to make their voices heard in public?

Like the men and women on Toompea, I struggled to find an answer. What could it be? What makes Tallinn unlike Athens and Paris? How come other Europeans let their representatives know when they are angry, but Estonians, yawn, are content to yell at the TV set or beat their chests in cyberspace?

Could it be temperament? Could it be that the glacial Estonians are too slow and peaceful to pick up placards and storm the capital to voice their concerns? Or maybe it’s the weather? Surely, a late March thaw is no time to stand around in a crowd of cold and unhappy people? I toyed with this idea at first, but eventually came to dismiss it. It is true that the Estonians are stereotypical northerners. It is true that Estonia is cold. But neither stopped the Icelanders from bringing Geir Haarde’s government to its knees last winter. Why, they even burned Christmas trees at protests in Reykjavik. So if there is an explanation for the Estonians’ aversion to mass demonstrations, that isn’t it.

Concentration camps established for foreign Jews

With the invasion of the Baltic States, it was the intention of the Nazi government to use the Baltics countries as their main area of mass genocide. Consequently, Jews from countries outside the Baltics were shipped there to be killed. and an estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Nazi regime also established 22 concentration and labor camps on occupied Estonian territory for foreign Jews. The largest, Vaivara concentration camp housed 1,300 prisoners at a time.

These prisoners were mainly Jews, with smaller groups of Russians, Dutch, and Estonians. Several thousand foreign Jews were killed at the Kalevi-Liiva camp. Units of Estonian auxiliary police participated in the extermination of the Jews in Estonia and Pskov region of Russia and provided guards for concentration camps for Jews and Soviet POWs (Jägala, Vaivara, Klooga, Lagedi), where the prisoners were killed - despite the criminal activities in which numbers of policemen were engaged.

Brussels EU summit

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, speaks with Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip during an EU summit in Brussels, Friday March 26, 2010.

EU leaders hold the second day of a summit that so far has focused on Greek economic woes, with eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund pledging financial support in a deal that aims to halt the government debt crisis undermining Europe's currency union.

New ways to competitiveness - from European cooperation to local actions

Tartu Science Park and Tartu City Government in cooperation with Estonian Ministry of the Interior welcomes you to an international conference, which will take place on May 10th-12th, 2010 in Tartu under the title: "New Ways to Competitiveness - from European Cooperation to Local Actions."

The conference will address the challenges which European regions are facing in the current economic context and will discuss new ways of increasing the competitiveness of the regions. The conference will highlight a number of innovative European cooperation projects, which have resulted in an action on a local level and thereby increased the regional competitiveness.

The overall aim of the conference is to discuss the methods and good practices on how regions can learn from each other and how they can transfer relevant experiences or turn existing policy models in one region into new actions in another.

More information on conference webpage http://www.sciencepark.ee/conference

Estonia’s PM stresses the need for agreement in European economic strategy aims

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said at the European Council summit on Thursday in Brussels that there is a need for an agreement in European economic strategy aims, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

The first day of the two-day meeting discussed in the new EU economic strategy Europe 2020, more specifically what the main aims of that strategy should be. Ansip stressed that achieving an agreement in these aims is very important, considering the further development of the EU.

“European Union citizens want to see practical deeds that help to lay foundation to a new economic growth,” said Ansip. “An agreement in common political targets enables us to carry on with practical steps.”

Ansip said that common aims create a frame for individual activities of member states, without reducing their decision-making rights. At the same time they support changes, simplify making decisions and give security to people.

Goldman downgrade weighs on DnB NOR

DnB NOR falls as much as 2.3 percent after Goldman Sachs downgrades Norway's top bank to "neutral" from "buy" and removes the stock from its pan-Europe Buy list.

"DnB NOR could face quite some headwind today after the ... Goldman Sachs dowmgrade," pan-Nordic bank Nordea says in a note, advising investors to buy Swedish Swedbank instead.

Swedbank, up 1.1 percent, is the leading gainer in Stockholm's blue-chip index after Chief Executive Michael Wolf says credit losses have continued to improve and the bank should make a profit this year.

Swedbank CEO says credit losses still improving

Swedbank's credit losses have continued to improve and the bank should make a profit this year, although conditions remain tough in the crisis-hit Baltic region, its chief executive said.

Michael Wolf also said on Friday that while Sweden's economy was surprisingly strong, the first move toward higher interest rates would be key.

"Companies have been very good at adapting their operations to the recession, but real tests on Sweden's sustainability will be when rates are normalised, towards 2011, we will probably get the answer to that question," he told Reuters at the bank's annual general meeting.

Wolf repeated the view there would be a gradual improvement in credit losses this year. "If nothing unexpected happens on the global arena, we should be able to show a profit," he said.

The bank said at the time of fourth-quarter results that a 2010 profit was possible following a 9.46 billion crown ($1.31 billion) operating loss last year.

Wolf said it was difficult to say whether there was a bubble in the Swedish housing market but he had seen an encouraging shift in customer behaviour in recent months as clients moved to longer-term loans.

Estonian shipping company will open a hotel in Riga

Estonian company AS Tallink Grupp presents a hotel in Riga under its own brand. Tallink Hotel Riga will receive its first guests on April 15, 2010.

AS Tallink Grupp is known as one of the largest shipping companies in Estonia. Recently Tallink has begun to provide its services on the hotel market. The company operates 4 hotels in Tallinn: Tallink City Hotel, Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel, Tallink Express Hotel and Pirita Top Spa Hotell. Hotel in Riga will be the first hotel project of the Tallinn transport giant outside Estonia.

The main investor of the project is the Estonian Financial Holding AS Infortar. The project costs in total 30 million euros. The future hotel will be located in the heart of Riga, on the Elizabetes Street, where there are located embassies and consulates of several countries.

Riga for Tallink is one of the key ports. The company offers several flights from Riga to Stockholm, Helsinki and other cities of the Baltic Sea. In 2009 the Tallink ferry took aboard the millionth passenger on the Riga-Stockholm flight. Against this background, the company’s intentions to open a branded hotel in the Latvian capital look like a natural continuation of the company's policy to fixate not only on the maritime transport market, but also in the hotel segment of the Baltic States.

Estonia wants art in its buildings

Estonia is preparing a law under which on 1% of the money invested in buildings commissioned by the state must be invested in works of art.

This would apply to public buildings like bus stations, prisons, schools and authorities. The daily Eesti Päevaleht is delighted:

“The world of art is underfunded in Estonia and the buying power of museums is limited, which poses a threat to the preservation of our national culture. Many works, including those of leading artists, remain unsold as a result. And school children know too little about art. If you ask them to name the great masters of our times they lower their eyes in embarrassment.

But if the ministry’s proposal becomes law our artists can be better presented to the public, particularly seeing as up to now their profession has not received the respect it deserves and art is undervalued in terms of its price.”

Juhan Parts : Estonian Air has to handle competition on its own

Expansion of airBaltic to Estonia shows that there is room in the local aviation market and Estonian Air must be able to cope with the competition without the help of the state too, said economy minister of Estonia Juhan Parts.

"There have been proposals that the state could start subsidising some connections or flights from the budget but airBaltic’s steps actually show that there is room at the market,” Parts told National Broadcasting’s news portal.

“From the perspective of Estonian Air, they have to accept that competition and offer possibilities that are better than those of airBaltic,” he added.

Although the state is a shareholder of Estonian Air, enlargement of airBaltic to Estonia is definitely a good thing, Parts said. “The main focus has to be on increasing flight connections. And in that situation, increasing competition may be a solution,” he said.

airBaltic announced yesterday of launching new regular flights from Tallinn and opening their base in Tallinn.

Juhan Tere

Estonia had 1.7% of GDP 2009 budget deficit, sealing Euro bid

Estonia had a budget deficit of 1.7 percent of gross domestic product last year, the national statistics office said, confirming the country met terms for euro entry in January 2011.

The general government deficit, including local governments and social insurance funds, was 3.7 billion krooni ($320 million), compared with 6.9 billion krooni in 2008, which corresponded to 2.7 percent of gross domestic product the Tallinn-based statistics office said on its Web site today.

The Finance Ministry this month said the deficit narrowed to 1.7 percent of GDP last year, below the 3 percent limit for euro adoption. The official report is the last piece of evidence on whether Estonia qualifies for the euro, Nordea AB analysts Anders Svendsen and Annika Lindblad said in a note this week.

“We find it likely that the European Commission will have reservations on some budget items in order to appear tough, but we find the risk of a change of the Estonian budget numbers from meeting the criteria to not meeting the criteria low,” Svendsen and Lindblad said on March 24.

Estonia is moving closer to the euro undeterred by the Greek debt crisis, European Commission President Jose Barroso said on March 24. “Estonia is on track and moving in the right direction,” he said at a press conference in Brussels.

Rise to 6.60% of the amount of loans overdue more than 60 days

TALLINN - The amount of loans overdue more than 60 days in Estonia's banking system rose 0.2 percent to 6.6 percent of the total loan portfolio in February compared to the previous month, the Estonian central bank said on Tuesday.

Estonia's banking system is 95 percent controlled by four Nordic financial groups, with Swedbank's market leading Estonia unit and SEB's SEB Eesti dominating the market in a country of just 1.3 million people. Almost all loans are issued in euros.

The total loan portfolio eased at the end of February was 249.2 billion kroons ($21.52 billion), compared to 249.3 billion kroons at the end of January.

The Estonian central bank forecast in October last year that loans overdue more than 60 days would increase to 8 percent of the total loan portfolio in the first half of 2010 as unemployment increases.

Reporting by David Mardiste; editing by Patrick Graham