BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Alarm bells should be ringing : Marju Lauristin

Marju Lauristin, Professor of Sociology in Tartu University and one of the authors of the public letter published earlier this week, says in Eesti Päevaleht that the fact that 46% of voters are not supporting any political party, this is a big threat to the democracy.

Lauristin was also one of the intellectuals who in the 1980's signed a "letter of the 40," which expressed discontent over the way power was wielded in a different Estonia - in that case by Moscow.

When asked why she took decided to sign the letter which warned that Estonia was turning into Ignoreland, Lauristin said that the fact that politics and the people were growing apart from each other and that there is a total lack of communication between the government and the nation means that these problems cannot be overlooked any more.

“The important thing is not just to criticise, but to consider and think how to progress and how the political system should be changed,” she said.

“Parties are a closed system and the only way that change can be achieved is if the citizens themselves take initiative. Without public pressure, these four parliamentary parties are like four towers of the Toompea Castle – it’s a fortress, it’s locked and its main objective is to keep intruders out. And no-one seems to have the key in the inside to open the door.”

Russian films on display at Tallinn film festival

The annual Black Nights Film Festival has opened in Estonia’s capital Tallinn.

The festival which features films from the northern and Baltic countries is the largest in the region.

According to the forum’s press secretary Olga Grigorieva, Russia is presenting a large number of productions, including Treason by Kirill Serebrennikov, The Daughter by Alexander Kasatkin, I Also Want to by Alexei Balabanov, Home by Oleg Pogodin, and the comedy Kokoko by Avdotya Smirnova.

Twenty films have been selected for the competition program out of the 270 presented.

The festival will last until November 28th

Estonian Air may be heading for bankruptcy

Despite previous assertions that Estonian Air cannot be allowed to go bankrupt, the national air carrier might have to do just that if the European Commission does not grant Estonia permission to bail the company out.

Prime Minister Ansip previously said that the state would not allow Estonian Air to go bankrupt under any circumstances.

“Since Estonian Air's fate will not be determined by the will of the government, but instead by the European Commission's decision, no scenario can be completely ruled out,” Ansip said at a press conference on Thursday.

Officials said more details would emerge in coming weeks, but a final decision may not be made until the second quarter of 2013.

At the end of October the state-owned Estonian Air announced a loss of 20.2 million euros for the first nine months of the year. On the same day, CEO Tero Taskila was replaced with Jan Palmer as CEO of Estonian Air.

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Estonian Air Announces New Route Closures

Estonian Air will cut flights on the Tallinn-Paris route next year and suspend flights to Vienna. In addition, the planned routes to Tbilisi and Hannover will not be opened in 2013. Estonian Air announced that, from January 26 to March 12, all flights between Tallinn and Paris would be discontinued. The company will temporarily resume flights to meet the higher seasonal demand in March.

43% of Estonians have debts

A study released on November 13 by the Institute of Economic Research shows that 43 percent of Estonian inhabitants have various forms of debt, reported ERR.

Based on a survey conducted in October, the study found that every fifth person in Estonia has a housing loan, one in eight has used a credit card and every tenth has leased a vehicle.

Men are more likely to lease a car, get a housing loan or sign up for monthly payments. Women are more likely to use credit cards or take minor loans. Installent plans are the most common form of credit used by older people. People between ages 30-49 who have higher income are the most likely candidates for loans.

Half of the loan takers rate their loan repayments as "completely manageable" and close to one-third say they consider the repayments manageable. One-half of respondents admitted said have not set aside savings for unexpected circumstances.

For the greatest contingent, financial obligations make up 30 percent of their income. Two percent of the population say repaying loans takes a "serious effort" or say they are not capable of repaying them at all.

People have different reasons for not having any loan obligations to their name. Twelve percent of they survey participants have already repaid their loans, 9 percent would take loans but banks do not consider them applicable and 8 percent say the idea of taking on such a commitment causes trepidation. The survey had a sample of 800 participants.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Doctors’ strike squeezes unemployment funds

TALLINN - The Estonian government coalition submitted on Nov. 7 an amendment to the Riigikogu that would reduce the planned increase of unemployment benefits, as it needs to find resources to fund the increase in wages of the medical staff, reports Postimees.

According to a plan that was already approved in 2009, the unemployment benefit was to be increased in 2013 from 65 euros, to a half a minimum wage, or 145 euros a month. According to the amendment submitted by the government on Nov. 7, the increase is being cut to 101 euros.
After the recent strike by doctors and nurses, Social Minister Hanno Pevkur said that the money for wage increases for medical staff will most likely be found by cutting the planned unemployment benefit increase next year. The amendments to the labor contracts law that Reform Party faction chairman Jaanus Tamkivi handed over to parliament proceedings on Nov. 7 confirmed the minister’s plan.

“The bill is caused by the need to find a source for 3.5 million euros that is necessary for the increase of wages of emergency medical staff and healthcare workers financed from the state budget that was agreed upon in October 2012 as the result of the doctors and healthcare workers strike,” Tamkivi said.
“This is the last thing that will be nullified for employees in the labor contract law that was signed trilaterally in April 2008,” said Trade Unions Confederation chairman Harri Taliga. He reiterated that the government changed the planned unemployment insurance compensation rates already in 2009 and this spring, ignoring the agreement.

Estonian player accused of cocaine dealing

TALLINN — An Estonian international footballer who plays at one of the top clubs in his country has been arrested on suspicion of cocaine dealing.

Prosecutors say they have initiated criminal proceedings against 27-year-old Oliver Konsa, who plays for Estonian league champion JK Nomme Kalju and has made 20 appearances for the national team.

Kristel Praun, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office, says Konsa and several other individuals are suspected of distributing "large amounts" of cocaine.

Konsa's defense lawyer failed to immediately return calls seeking comment. The Tallinn club said Tuesday that it has suspended Konsa pending an investigation. Konsa joined the club in 2010.

Economy minister sees conflict of interests for Port of Tallinn chief

Estonian economy minister Juhan Parts sees a conflict of interests since the council of the state-owned port operator Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn) is the same person as the head of the Estonian Olympic Committee (EOC), businessman Neinar Seli, LETA/Postimees writes.

Seli was elected EOC president last week. Parts said then that Seli should leave the council of Tallinna Sadam or stop allocating sponsorship money. Tallinna Sadam has been a major sponsor of both EOC and sports associations. Seli said yesterday that he will resign from Tallinna Sadam sponsorship committee.

"First, with state-owned companies, the fundamental risk of conflict of interests has to be ruled out," Parts said. He said that a state owned company should support only projects connected directly to the company's business interests. "Tallinna Sadam or Eesti Energia cannot be a mini-Culture Capital. A business enterprise can base its sponsorship activities only on business interests. Rather the state should withdraw more dividends from companies and support sports more from the state treasury," said Parts.

The daily said though that Parts threatens to ban Tallinna Sadam from sponsoring sports association since he has differences of opinion with port council chairman Seli over large projects.

Seli said that there is no conflict of interest. "This is a searched reason, I don’t see a conflict of interests in supporting sports, there are other reasons here," said Seli. He mentioned the Rail Garant agreement. Russian railways firm Rail Garant should build a container terminal in the port but has frozen its project in Tallinn to wait for the solution to a court process initiated by its local competitor. Another dispute between Seli and Parts is icebreaking. Tallinna Sadam will buy an icebreaker and will have to start operating it to keep Estonian ports ice free.

Juhan Tere

Estonian democracy crumbling

The 18th anniversary of the Estonian ruling party has been marred by harsh criticism from public activists who accuse the leadership of bribery and jeering at democratic principles.

On Wednesday, 17 Estonian intellectuals and public members applied to the government with an open letter. They demand an end to the stagnation and what they see as a monopoly on power by the Reform Party, which has been ruling the state since 2007.

“The democracy in Estonia is ruining right before our eyes,” the activists stated, as cited by ERR News. “The dialogue between government and the public has turned into a monologue: 'We have a mandate.' 'There is no alternative to us.' This is not the language of democracy."

If citizens have a chance to influence the country’s politics only once in four years – during the elections, democracy turns into an empty shell, the authors of the letter believe.

The critics insist that it is not a crisis of the ruling party only – the entire Estonian political system may lose trust. However, the Estonian president, the parliament and the government have so far expressed no wish to change the situation.

As ruling party turns 18, some see stagnation

The Reform Party was given a surprise birthday party today during the Tartu city government's press conference, where activists entered to present Mayor Urmas Kruuse a gift to mark 18 years since the birth of the ruling party.

In the latest in a string of relatively minor demonstrations, the activists, who have organized under the slogan "An end to deceitful politics,“ are holding a protest at Tartu's Town Hall Square today at 17:30, and another in Tallinn on Saturday, reported Postimees.

A declaration by the activists says: "The Reform Party turns 18 years old on November 13. Usually this is the age of a rite of passage. We find that the Reform Party has yet to pass its test in the sense of democracy, although it has tried to pass it for some time now. We cannot accept that the ruling party of Estonia is not trustworthy in the most elementary sense.“

The coming of age passes at a time that a Postimees commentator today called one of the biggest crises of the party's history, even drawing a comparison to a controversy involving party co-founder Siim Kallas, now a European Commissioner, that is remembered as the "10 million dollar“ scandal (Kallas was central bank governor at a time when the Bank of Estonia underwrote a loan that later proved bad; he was never implicated).

Despite being cleared of charges last month in a criminal investigation into political funding practices, allowing the minister of justice to keep his post, criticism of the Reform Party has not died down. Pundits have been on the offensive in the news media and news stories that previously would have received little attention now carry an undertone, according to the Postimees commentator.

Disney to air TV show on russian school, but filmed in Estonia

A new television show developed by Disney and Channel One will feature the adventures of students at a Russian school — but all the filming will be carried out in Estonia.

The family-friendly show, "After School," was made especially for the Russian market and will debut at midnight Friday on the state-owned channel. Each weekly episode will feature a ninth or 10th grade student at a regular Russian school. But the series, the first to be produced under a collaboration between the U.S. entertainment giant and Channel One, will be filmed in its entirety in Tallinn, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing Channel One.

Co-producer Andrei Boltenko said the Baltic city was chosen for its "fabulous and nonbourgeois atmosphere," Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Monday. The head of Disney Russia, Marina Zhigalovo-Ozkan, told the newspaper that the show feeds on the best traditions of Soviet TV shows such as "Prikluchenia Elektronika" (Adventures of an Electrician), which incidentally was also filmed in the Baltics, in this case Lithuania.

Tallinn’s free ticket to ride

Like the small kid at school who over-achieves to compensate for his stature, Estonia has a thing about proving itself. The Baltic state of 1.3m was the first country in the world to introduce online voting and pioneered the use of free public internet. It was also the first former Soviet republic to join the eurozone. Precisely two years after that event, on January 1, 2013, Tallinn will become the largest city in the world and the first capital to provide free public transport to all of its residents.

At first it sounds counter-intuitive for this strident champion of the free market (which also championed flat-rate taxes) to be offering something so reminiscent of state socialism. But as ever in Baltic affairs, there is more to free public transport than meets the eye.

The official line presses all the right euro-buttons about social cohesion, empowerment and environmentalism, as Edgar Savisaar, mayor of Tallinn, explained at a conference in October dedicated to the initiative.

“Families with low or medium wages and with children have really suffered during the recession… [and this] will allow more mobility, will allow the unemployed to be cohesive and will promote commerce as consumers can move around freely,” Savisaar told delegates in the unusual surroundings of an Tallinn multiplex cinema.

But perhaps the first hint that local politics plays at least as much of a part in the scheme as municipal philanthropy came when Saavisaar said: “A Scandinavian mayor told me, ‘You in Tallinn have no idea how excited you have made opposition parties and how nervous you have made us’.”

Enterprise Estonia director resigns

The head of Enterprise Estonia, Ülari Alamets, who refused to resign upon the suggestion of the agency's supervisory board last week, has reconsidered and decided to step down.

The supervisory board was due to meet on Tuesday to discuss whether Alamets should be let go due to an agency mistake that may force 61 companies to repay a total of 10.5 million euros in EU aid.

“In order to achieve the best possible solution for the organization, I submit my proposal on November 12 to end the contract between myself and Enterprise Estonia, taking effect today," Alamets said in a statement.

The outgoing director worked in the agency for 10 years, taking the reins in 2007.

An audit conducted by the European Commission last year found that the government's entrepreneurship fund has for years broken a rule in handing out grants to businesses. According to that rule, companies do not qualify for aid if they have started work, e.g. bought equipment, before applying for the aid.

Estonia' economic growth accelerates in Q3

The Estonian economy expanded at a faster rate in the third quarter, preliminary data released by Statistics Estonia showed Monday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3.4 percent on an annual basis in the third quarter, notably faster than the 2.2 percent gain seen in the second quarter. In the first quarter, the economy expanded by 3.4 percent.

For the fifth quarter in succession, construction, information and communication activities contributed the most to the overall growth. At the same time, trade, transport, professional, technical and administrative and support service activities contributed moderately to the economic growth.

Compared to the second quarter, the seasonally and working-day adjusted GDP advanced at a faster rater of 1.7 percent in the third quarter, data showed.

Estonia’s police chief to resign after scandal

TALLINN— Estonia’s director general of the Police and Border Guard Board has announced his resignation following a scandal in which police officers knowingly and illegally issued hundreds of speeding fines and corresponding late fees, local media reported on Monday.

Estonian Broadcasting Corporation (ERR) quoted Interior Minister Ken-Marti Vaher as saying he would not recommend Raivo Kuut’s resignation to the government before next spring.

According to Estonian ETV reports on Thursday, in the course of six months in 2011, the police issued 178 speeding fines based on readings with an improperly calibrated radar gun.

Kuut said in his resignation statement that the scandal has put the police department “under strong public pressure and criticism,” adding “I have decided to leave my position in order to mitigate tensions and to resolve the disruption.”

Vaher, who oversees the police agency, said “I do not have reason to believe that the director general had tried to conceal the incident” based on consultation with the parties concerned, noting “the official inquiry is still ongoing.”

Last week, head of Estonia’s East Prefecture police department Aldis Alus also stepped down following the breakout of the scandal, the ERR reported.

Thomas Whittle

Estonia confirmed as Member of UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations General Assembly confirmed Estonia as a member of the UN Human Rights Council. In New York on Monday, 184 of 193 members of the General Assembly voted to approve Estonia for the 47-seat council. Estonia will have a 2013-2015 term.

In commenting on the decision, which comes as the culmination of a candidacy first made in 2005, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said the Council remains relevant. "The Human Rights Council has shown that it is capable of responding fairly rapidly to serious human rights violations."

The UN Human Rights Council was established in 2006, replacing the Human Rights Commission.

The Commission has been considered discredited, and the council has also been criticized, including for electing members accused of human rights violations.

Tallinn to buy new trams from Spanish manufacturer CAF

City of Tallinn’s transport agency Tallinna Linnatranspordi (TLT) has chosen the Spanish company Construcciones y Axiliar de Ferrocariles S.A to supply at least 15 trams for the capital, reported ERR.

The company beat the offer of Swiss-German company Stadler Bussnang AG/Stadler Pankow GmbH, the only other company to tender a bid.

According to the procurement, the Spanish company has to offer training for  drivers and service mechanics to use the new technology when it arrives in Estonia.

The Estonian party has the option to buy additional 15 trams from Spain.

TLT's new air-conditioned trams store energy when braking and later re-use it. Some infrastructure upgrades on the tram line are expected. The transport agency is currently preparing another public procurement for this purpose.

Stadler Bussnang has said that it plans to dispute the outcome of the tender because its bid was not qualified.

“We know that our bid was cheaper than the one of CAF so we would like to know on what grounds out tender was rejected,” said a representative of CAF.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Tallink will bring a larger ship on Tallinn-Helsinki route

AS Tallink Grupp announced that it will bring cruise ferry Silja Europa, which is the biggest passenger ship in its class, to Tallinn-Helsinki route from the 23rd of January while the cruise ferry Baltic Princess will be directed to Turku-Stockholm route from the 1st of February 2013, the company reported.

“Bringing Europa to the Tallinn-Helsinki route is another exciting step in our continued promise of offering excellence to our cruise customers. Although certainly modern, Baltic Princess has a distinct charm and personality that will make sailing in the archipelago an unforgettable cruise experience”, said Peter Roose, Management Board Member of the Group.

The company expects that the change of vessels should bring along a positive economic development in regards to the cost efficiency on both routes and give new energy to the Turku-Stockholm route. On Turku-Stockholm route the change delivers the advantage of even quality and identity for the route as being operated by two new sister vessels Galaxy and Baltic Princess. Silja Europa is a suitable vessel to serve the further increasing demand on Tallinn-Helsinki route, writes LETA.

The environmental side of the change is very important as well, as by changing the vessels diminishes the fuel consumption and therefore also the harmful impact to the environment.

Tallinn airport considers layoffs

Tallinn Airport announced yesterday that there may be layoffs ahead for its ground handling subsidiary and that expansion plans for a new terminal will be halted for the time being.

The airport blamed declining passenger numbers and Estonian Air's poor financial situation, reported Postimees.

"Unfortunately, the possibility of layoffs taking place is greater than not. We do not yet know when and how many people will be laid off. That will become clear when we have a more detailed understanding of how Estonian Air plans to move forward," Tallinn Airport Chairman of the Board Rein Loik said.

The airport had been planning to build a new terminal, but the project is not justified at the moment with traveler numbers declining, Loik said. Still, plans for the terminal are ready and would take half a year to implement when the opportunity arises, he said.

After the sacking of Estonian Air's CEO last week, the company announced it would cut routes, flights and staff in order to quell financial hardship. Irish budget airline Ryanair has also reduced its flights for the winter season.

It should be possible to use digital signature in Baltic Sea region : Ilves

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said at the opening of the conference of "European Union Baltic Sea strategy and acute legal and economic issues, in the insolvency sphere, among others" that Baltic states as a whole could be the laboratory of the common digital market, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

"Let us start from acknowledging the digital signature between each other in the Baltic Sea region," he said.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said that a lot of work has to be done in the Baltic Sea states on implementing the information and communication technology possibilities. While Nordic states have excelled in using different e-applications, cross-border e-commerce isn’t working for us, Ilves said.

"The selection of services provided via Internet could also be wider. I see no reason why different parts of e-health, including digital prescriptions, digital pictures and digital health records could not operate in cross-border form," said Ilves, adding that privacy and safety rules have to be strictly adhered to.

Juhan Tere

Paavo Järvi decorated with French Cultural Order

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been awarded the French cultural title Commandeur de l´Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Järvi received the award in Paris yesterday from the French minister of culture, Aurélie Filippetti. The conductor was recognized for his part in developing Estonian-French relations during the 2011 Estonian culture festival "Estonie tonique."

Järvi has served as the chief conductor and musical director of the Orchestre de Paris since 2010. He is the latest to be recognized by the French government for "Estonie tonique." Others have included composer Helena Tulve, Vox Clamantis art director Jaan-Eik Tulve, filmmaker Ilmar Raag and producer Lembit Peterson.