BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

The Cranberries to headline Õllesummer 2011 festival : 6th-9th July, 2011

Wednesday, 06 July 2011

18:00	Elmar dancetent	Marju Länik
18:00	Playboy Lounge	Topless kehamaalimine - SÜGIS
18:30	Estrella stage	HU?
19:00	Playboy Lounge	Tantsugrupp Aruba
19:00	Jacob`s Creek jazz & wine garden	Anneliis Kits - tribute to Incognito
19:20	Playboy Lounge	Olympic FunCasino
19:30	Playboy Lounge	Praecello tantsushow
19:45	Elmar dancetent	Laulame koos Reet Linnaga
20:00	JägerClub	Ahto Kruusmann
20:00	Playboy Lounge	Eesti Miss Bikini
20:30	Estrella stage	Zetod
20:30	Playboy Lounge	Vako Fantaasiad - meik & soeng - Chicago Urban
20:30	Postimees stage	2 Quick Start
20:45	Elmar dancetent	Anekdoodimäng
21:00	Jacob`s Creek jazz & wine garden	Simone Moreno (BRA) & Villu Veski
21:00	Coca-Cola restaurant	Õllesummeri maailmameistrivõistlused karaokes
21:00	Playboy Lounge	Pitgirl 2011 valimine
21:30	Elmar dancetent	Meie Mees
22:00	Playboy Lounge	Strip Black-Jack & võida Playboy parfüüm
22:30	Jacob`s Creek jazz & wine garden	Anneliis Kits LIVE + DJ Sander Mölder
22:30	Playboy Lounge	Special show naistele - Kauboi Jack
22:30	Estrella stage	Ott Lepland
23:00	Postimees stage	Killer Queen (UK)
23:15	Playboy Lounge	Venus Club esitleb: Videodisco - DJ Möls & DJ Fade

XI Youth Song and Dance celebration, July 1st-3rd, 2011

Location: Tallinn Song Festival Grounds
Web page: www.laulupidu.ee

Ask any Estonian what it means to be Estonian, and the first idea that will leap into his or her mind will be the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration. These massive folk gatherings, involving thousands of colorfully-dressed performers from all over Estonia and abroad, have helped define the nation's spirit ever since the days of the first Estonian Song Celebration in 1869. In the 20th century the celebration developed into a regular cultural phenomenon, and is now held once every five years

A separate Youth Song and Dance Celebration was introduced in the early 1960s to accommodate the huge numbers of youth choirs and dance groups that wanted to participate. It's held on separate years from the main celebration, but is every bit as spectacular.

XI Youth Song and Dance Celebration will be held on July 1-3. Tens of thousands of young performers will fill the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds for the three-day festival, whose slogan this summer is "The Wide World Begins in a Small Land".

Song Celebration (3 July 2011) is a six-hour long concert with different choirs and orchestras performing. Songs and music take the most powerful form when many voices blend together.

Dance Celebration (1 and 2 July 2011) is almost a two-hour dance performance with thousands of dancers’ and gymnasts’ groups on the dance ground. Together they form beautiful dance patterns and all in all perform more than 20 different dances and gymnastics’ programs.

One of the highlights, held on the festival's last day, will be the traditional parade through the city centre.

Tickets are available at www.piletilevi.ee
More information from www.laulupidu.ee

Rail Baltica requires huge commitment

A rail project linking the Baltics from Tallinn to the Polish border is a realistic possibility, but will require 4,000 passengers a day, 440 million euros in state backing and 2 billion euros from the EU, according to a new feasibility study.

Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts said on June 29 that the project, which could cut ground travel time to Riga and Poland in half, would require six things to happen. 

Besides the passenger numbers and EU and national money, the project would be justified by a annual freight volume of 9 million tons. And Parts said the other Baltics and smooth cooperation would be a necessity, along with a 10-year commitment from the , and public.

Parts's points - six in all - are based on the findings of a study from a UK consultancy, Aecom, that deemed the Rail Baltica link feasible and profitable.

Parts stressed it is a long-term project, with completion slated for around 2025.

Estonia backs a model where a centrally managed joint venture would drive the project, with equal contributions from all three countries, and discourages a "meet in the middle" approach. A decision on financing would come in five or six years. 

The ideal route for Rail Baltica line would parallel the Via Baltica highway, running through Pärnu, Riga and Kaunas. It would be 728 kilometers long.

The entire route would take 3.7 billion euros in current prices to build, with Estonia's share being 1.04 billion euros.

Kristopher Rikken

Estonia not planning to oppose erecting a new administrative EU building

Estonia does not consider it necessary to erect a new official building for the European Union, but is not intending to actively oppose the plans, either, writes LETA/Postimees Online.

Allegedly, the new building that will cost up to 240 million euros is necessary on the basis of a decision made in 2001, in order to hold all future summits in Brussels and to create good working conditions for the staff of the President of the EU.

“Representatives of the small country Estonia feel that the current rooms are big enough for the European Union to work efficiently, but the decision on getting the new building was made in expectations of good times, before Estonia acceded to the EU,” commented the EU information director of the Government’s Press Office Villu Känd. “Estonia has not made any proposals to cut construction costs or to halt the project,” he added.

According to his opinion, halting the project in the current stage of construction would probably be a greater waste of taxpayers’ money than completing the works.

Juhan Tere

Ahlstrom signs EUR 250 million "revolving credit" facility

Ahlstrom, a global high-performance materials company, has today signed a new EUR 250 million five year Revolving Credit Facility. This is a committed credit facility to be used for general corporate purposes. This Facility refinances Ahlstrom's existing EUR 200 million Revolving Credit Facility dated 15 July 2009.

The banks acting as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners are DnB NOR Bank ASA, Merchant Banking, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), Nordea, Pohjola Bank plc, Sampo Bank plc, and Swedbank AB (publ). BNP Paribas Corporate & Investment Banking and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank act as Lead Arrangers.

Nordea acted as the Coordinator, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) is the Documentation Agent and Pohjola Bank plc is the Facility Agent in the Facility.

For further information, please contact:
Seppo Parvi, CFO, tel. +358 10 888 4768

Distribution:
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
Main media
www.ahlstrom.com

German foreign investors prefer Estonia among Eastern European countries

In the list of the most attractive CEE countries as destination for investments for German enterprises, Estonia improved its ranking by three positions in 2011, writes LETA/Äripäev.ee.

Estonia and Poland are the countries that would be preferred as the destination of German investments, appeared from a market research carried out by the Chamber of Foreign Trade of Germany.

The survey that included 943 German enterprises operating in 16 Central and Eastern European countries, concluded that while the economic situation in Europe has stabilised, German businesses feel that the growth in the CEE region is still moderate. Nearly one in two enterprises finds that the current macroeconomic situation is bad while one in seven estimates that the situation is good.

Positive responses were in the majority in only four countries – Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

In the context of the entire region, 38% of German enterprise expect the economic situation to improve in the CEE region this year. The economic growth projections are particularly positive in the three Baltic States as well as in Poland, Slovakia and in Hungary.

Most German investors stated that they would again choose the same country as the destination for their investment. 76% of respondents sated that they would repeat their investments in the current circumstances. Enterprises in Estonia and in Poland are the most satisfied with the situation in the destination country. Estonia received the best score in 13 out of 24 categories in which the destination countries were graded – including for its taxation system, accounting regulations and political stability.

Juhan Tere

National Carrier opens route to Trondheim

Estonian Air announced it will open in September a new five-flights-a-week route to Norway's third largest city, Trondheim.

The new route was inspired through a campaign to step up the company's game called "My Estonian Air," according to Rauno Parras, assistant director of commercial affairs.

The point is to ask customers, partners and employees where to fly. "Many stressed the significance of expanding direct flights to Scandinavian cities," said Parras.

Anticipation has been in the air after the company was renationalized, purchased new airplanes and recently got a new president and CEO. "Estonian Air is on the threshold of a new era," said Joakim Helenius, chairman of the supervisory board, upon hiring Finnish national Tero Taskila in May.

However, before being bought out by the government, Estonian Air was also plagued by lack of clarity and transparency with regard to relations between its owners. The company has lost 200,000 Estonian customers in recent years to AirBaltic, Scandinavian and Czech carriers, and low-cost airlines.

Estonian Air has been losing money since 2005. Taskila has said he hopes to bring profit to the company by the end of next year.

Ott Tammik

Swedbank Estonia to sell Latvian, Lithuanian subsidiaries to parent company

Swedbank, the largest bank in Estonia, announced yesterday that it had decided to change its legal structure in reference to the bank’s three Baltic subsidiaries.

Among others, the company  has decided to make Latvian and Lithuanian subsidiaries directly owned by Swedbank AB, like in the case of Swedbank Estonia.

As a consequence, Swedbank in Estonia, the previous parent company of the subsidiaries in Latvia and Lithuania will sell its shares in these to Swedbank AB.

Erkki Raasuke, finance director of Swedbank AB, said that the move will make capital management easier and more efficient in the future.

In connection with the changes, Swedbank in Estonia will pay 243 million euros in dividends that it earned from the operations in Latvia and Lithuania.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonian prices 75% of EU average

The latest Eurostat figures show that Estonia is still a relatively cheap country – for someone making an average EU salary, that is. Overall prices in 2010 were 75 percent of the average found across the 27-member bloc.

The most expensive country was Denmark, which came in at 143 percent of average, followed by Estonia's neighbors Finland at 123 percent, Luxembourg and Sweden at 120 percent and Ireland at 118 percent.

Bargain hunters should head to Bulgaria, where prices are just 51 percent of the EU average. The next options are Romania at 59 percent, Lithuania and Poland at 63 percent, and Latvia at 69 percent.

It will come as little surprise to Estonian shoppers that clothing and consumer electronics in their country came in at 100 percent and 101 percent of the EU average respectively. Food and non-alcoholic beverages cost 80 percent of the average and alcoholic beverages and tobacco 81 percent. Restaurants and hotels are still a relative bargain at 71 percent of the average.

Steve Roman

UV index hits record high

According to the Tartu Observatory, the index measuring harmful ultraviolet radiation reaching the ground in Estonia hit a record 8.6 on June 29, clearly above the healthy level for habitual sunbathers.

Weather forecaster Ain Kallis told uudised.err.ee that ultraviolet radiation measurements are not comparable in accuracy to other meteorological data like temperature or wind speed, but that the current level is definitely exceptional for Estonia.

However, the amount of harmful radiation is expected to drop somewhat by Thursday, with more cloudy skies ahead.

When the index is above six on the 10-point scale, it is unadvisable to remain in the sunlight without covering up. Sunburn, which occurs on the average after less than 20 minutes of bare skin exposure at the 8.6 level, carries a risk of skin cancer.

Erkki Sivonen

US names and shames EU countries on human trafficking

BRUSSELS - The US has put Cyprus, Estonia and Malta on a "watch list" for failures to stop "severe" levels of human trafficking.

The report, out on Monday (28 June), said "the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing" in the three EU members, but governments are guilty of "failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts" to combat the problem.

Six other EU states - Bulgaria, the Czech republic, Greece, Hungary, Latvia and Romania - were also named and shamed for not meeting US norms.

The EU group-of-nine hold similar or lower ratings than many developing countries such as Guatemala or Malawi.

The majority of EU-aspirant countries in the western Balkans and Turkey, as well as countries seeking EU visa-free travel, such as Moldova, Russia and Ukraine got similarly poor marks.

Speaking in Washington about the report on Monday, secretary of state Hilary Clinton - whose husband Bill Clinton signed into life the Trafficking and Victims Prevention Act when US president, said US diplomats will take backsliders to task.

"This week, US diplomats around the world will be meeting with their host-country governments to review action plans and provide recommendations when needed," she noted. "Even in these tight economic times, we need to look for creative ways to do better."

Estonian kids' pocket money low for Nordics

Older basic school students in Estonia get an average of 18 euros a month in allowance from their parents, a study by Sampo Bank found, lagging behind the Nordics, although the figures are high in proportion to average salary.

Seventh to ninth graders in Finland get 28 euros a month, Swedes of the same age receive 41 euros and Norwegians are given 50 euros on average each month.

Those in the fourth to sixth grades in Estonia get 12 euros in pocket money. The figures for the same age in the other Nordics are 18, 21 and 34 euros, respectively.

The amounts that early elementary school age get are more similar: nine for Estonia, 11 for Finland, 12 for Sweden and 23 euros for Norway.

The study also revealed that around one-fifth of Estonian parents cut back on their kids' allowances during the recession

One-third of respondents said they have started talking more about money with their kids.

A total of 64 percent said they talk "often" about  money with their teens. 

Almost all of the parents surveyed said they thought that shaping the right attitudes toward money was part of their parental duties. But 87 percent of parents found that schools should also include home economics-type content in their curriculum.

The study was conducted in seven countries, and 500 households were included.

Kristopher Rikken

New taxi service regulation creates confusion

The new regulation on taxi service that will take effect next week and imposes new strict requirements on taxis in Tallinn is raising more questions than answering them.

No-one knows how many of the city’s 1,500 taxis are able to comply with such new requirements as having at least 400 litres of trunk space, functioning ABS brakes, front airbags and air condition.

The list of regulations stipulates that every taxi is clearly marked with a "Takso" sign on its roof, carries a price list on its window and that its meter is connected to a printer that can produce a receipt.

According to the city, one of the reasons for issuing new regulations was the need to push small vehicles, where passengers were forced to ride with their baggage in their lap, out of the market. "This will get rid of all sorts of Toyota Yarises driving around the town," explained deputy mayor Jaanus Mutli at the time of passing the new regulation in 2009.

Toomas Hõbemägi

150 forged euro banknotes found in Estonia in 5 months

During the first five months of 2011, 150 forged euro banknotes were discovered in Estonia, writes LETA/Postimees Online.

The most commonly forged banknote was the 50 euro banknote – these account for nearly a half of all discovered forged banknotes.

A total of 37 1-euro and 2-euro coins that were forged were detected in five months.

Thus far none of the banknotes have been found to have been forged in Estonia.

Baltic countries hold a lesson for Greece in crisis

RIGA — As Greece’s anguish spills into the streets, three small Baltic countries may offer an example, if not a model, of how to survive an economic crisis through austerity measures.

After suffering the deepest recession in Europe during the global financial crisis, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia swallowed the bitter medicine that Greece is now being asked to take.

They slashed pensions, welfare benefits and public sector salaries while raising taxes. Latvia, which came dangerously close to bankruptcy, had to fire thousands of public servants and close schools and hospitals.

It was painful, but the cure worked. Battered and bruised, the three former Soviet republics are now on a path to recovery. Latvia’s budget-cutting government even won re-election last year.

“Latvia has a lot of lessons for Greece, but they are all coming too late,” said Morten Hansen, head of the economics department at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.

The main lesson: Push through austerity measures quickly before public support ebbs out.

“You can have that support for some time, but not three-four years,” he said. “Now people are starting to get more unhappy (in Latvia), but now the worst is over.”

Protests in Greece, where anti-government demonstrations are more common than in Northern European countries, have taken on new momentum. There is a constant sit-in in the central square in Athens and violent clashes with police have become a regular occurrence.

Historic submarine lifted for new museum

Preparations for the opening of North Europe’s biggest new maritime museum are well underway in Estonia with the world’s oldest in the water submarine having been lifted to land.

The legendary Estonian submarine Lembit was hauled from the water at its home port in Tallinn as it is prepared to become the centrepiece at the new maritime museum at the Seaplane Harbour (Lennusadam). The unique museum will be opened at the former seaplane hangars in 2012.

Lembit is the only warship in Estonia’s pre-war fleet to survive intact. It is the crown jewel of Estonia’s military history, being in excellent condition and offering a glimpse of state of the art technology in the 1930s.

Having made its maiden voyage almost 75 years ago, Lembit was hauled to dry land on special air cushions in one of the most complicated water engineering operations ever to be carried out in Estonia. Once on land, the submarine’s interior is being thoroughly restored to give visitors an opportunity to see the submarine as it was in its heyday.

Estonia’s two identical submarines, Lembit and Kalev, were built at the British Vickers-Armstrongs shipyards in Barrow-in-Furness and made their maiden voyage on 7 July 1936. The ships reached Estonia in the summer of 1937 after thorough trials at sea and the training of the crew.

Cold feet about joining the Euro in the East

Adopting the euro is "not something to kill yourself over," says Lithuania's central bank governor. It's a common sentiment in the region.

First join the European Union, then qualify for the euro. That was the path laid out for the countries of Eastern Europe that wanted to weld themselves to the West. Euro membership proved that a country had the discipline to join one of the world's most exclusive clubs.

The Greek crisis has slowed the rush to join. On June 7, Latvia's central bank governor, Ilmars Rimsevics, said the euro shouldn't be introduced in his country "at any price." His Lithuanian counterpart, Vitas Vasiliauskas, said two days later that the goal of adopting the euro in three years is "not something to kill yourself over." On May 20, Poland's central bank governor, Marek Belka, said his country and the region would not get the benefits they had anticipated from a quick adoption of the euro. And as far back as December, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said his country can refuse to adopt the single currency as long as it deems it beneficial to keep the koruna.

The struggle to stem the Greek contagion has shown the East Europeans, who have endured many crises of their own, that the euro zone is hardly immune. More alarming to these countries is the idea that if they were in the euro zone, they would be coughing up billions to a bailout fund for Greece, Portugal, and Ireland.

Tiiu Kuik - Colores Néon

Impact figure

Emilio Pucci S/S 2007 : Carmen Kass by Inez and Vinoodh

Full campaign  by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

Estonia rates 21st in EU for per capita GDP

Prime Minister Ansip's much-publicized claim that Estonia will one day be among the five wealthiest countries in Europe has a ways to go before becoming a reality, newly released figures from Eurostat show.

According to 2010 data, the nation's per capita GDP was 65 percent of the EU average, putting it in 21st place in the 27-member bloc.

The richest country was Luxembourg with 283 percent of the average, followed by the Netherlands at 134 percent. Denmark, Ireland and Austria tied for third at 125 percent.

The poorest EU countries were Romania and Bulgaria, whose per capita GDPs came in at 45 percent and 43 percent of the EU average respectively.

Steve Roman