BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Swedbank earns its biggest-ever profit in Estonia

Swedbank Estonia announced yesterday that it made EUR 199.6m in profit last year which is 9% more than in 2011 and the bank’s biggest-ever profit in Estonia.

In the fourth quarter, the bank earned 63.3m euros in net profit or almost twice the third-quarter result. "Figures are impressive indeed," admitted the bank’s CEO Priit Perens. Perens said that record profits came from the decline in bad loan provisions that last year were EUR 40m lower than in 2011.

„Loans that we were not hoping to recover performed better than we expected,” said Perens, adding that the bank has recovered about 25% of its total initial provision of EUR 320m. The bank says that although its customers have become more active economically, the bank’s income from service fees remained at the 2011 level.

Perens said that he cannot rule out that Swedbank will adjust its structure of banking fees. „I am not saying that it will be made next month, but I cannot rule out it in the long term,” said Perens without going into further detail. Nordea Eesti reported that it ended last year with a profit of EUR 48m which is about 20% more than a year earlier.

Comparing the results of both banks, Swedbank continues to lose market share in loans and deposits, while Nordea has strengthened its position.

Karmen Pedaru : Mango collection

Estonian Air’s new plan sent to the government

TALLINN – Estonia's national carrier Estonian Air has sent a plan to the government on its flight schedule till September 28, containing ten destinations instead of the nine mentioned earlier, Eesti Paevaleht writes.

Estonian Air's overhaul plan will be reviewed by the Cabinet on Thursday and a decision on how the company will move forward is expected to be made in early February.

Supervisory board member Erki Urva said it was too early to disclose the specifics of the draft plan such as spending figures, Postimees reported.

The government decided in December to lend Estonian Air 8.3 million euros, which the minister of economic affairs, Juhan Parts, has said would save the company from bankruptcy until March.

The European Commission is currently reviewing the Estonian government's request to bail out the airline. "The new plan focuses on balancing the company and servicing a route network consisting of ten strong destinations," said Estonian Air's manager Jan Palmer.

Earlier, nine destinations have been mentioned. Now the summer flight plan includes Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim. Considering the summer tourism season Estonian Air flies to Nice, in March school break and summer to Paris. Flights to Paris and Helsinki take place till the end of January and flights to Vienna till the end of March.

Palmer said that talks are under way to operate other companies' European routes with Estonian Air planes. "Restructuring proceeds according to plan but a lot is yet to be done," said Palmer.

Estonia drops out of Top 10 in "Press Freedom Index"

After placing third in the 2012 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, the country fell to 11th place this year.

Estonia has been ranked by the Paris based NGO since 2003, reaching number three in both 2007 and 2011, while the low came in 2003, when Estonia occupied the 12th position.

The publisher offered no explanation to Estonia's fall.

But director of the Estonian Newspaper Association Mart Raudsaar told Postimees that there are three likely main reasons for the fall. Legislation against hate crimes has been made more strict and it might now be used to quell the media, he said.

“A second reason was that, last year, a number of politicians spoke up on the use of language by journalists, especially those employed by Estonian Public Broadcasting. The talk was that it should somehow be regulated,” added Raudsaar.

Estonia sees drug overdose death record in 2012

TALLINN - A total of 160 deaths were caused by a drug overdose in Estonia last year, the highest number in the country’s entire history, Interior Minister Ken Marti-Vaher said on Tuesday.

The number of deaths was up by 28, or a 21 percent increase from 2011.

Some €350,000 ($471,660) were allocated for special police operations against drug related crimes, the minister said.

A special government commission was set up to prevent drug abuse, monitor the anti-drug effort and advise the government on the issue.

The current priority is to control the fentanyl market, he said, referring to what is believed to be the most dangerous drug and the chief cause of death from overdose.

Estonia has a population of about 1.3 million.

Estonia makes DVB-T2 move

Levira and the Estonian public broadcaster ERR have signed a cooperation agreement to begin transmitting the channel ETV in DVB-T2.

Commenting on the move, Levira’s CEO Mart Einpalu said that although 250,000 homes in Estonia have HD sets, the quality of channels available in the format is meager.

Its goal is to offer viewers a better quality of TV experience.

Levira points out that the DVB-T2 standard is already used in most neighbouring countries including Finland, Sweden, Russia and Ukraine.

Chris Dziadul

Insurance fraud attempts in Estonia amounted to 2.4 mln euros in 2012

Insurance companies operating in Estonia ascertained in 2012 a total of 250 insurance fraud cases with which fraudsters tried to get 2.4 million euros, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

While in 2012, the total number of cases of insurance fraud ascertained by insurance companies fell by nearly 25%, the amount of money the fraudsters tried to get grew by over 26%, Estonian Insurance Companies Union announced.

In 2010 and 2011 the number of ascertained insurance fraud cases was 330 and 327 respectively.

While in 2011, the monetary volume of the fraud reached 1.88 million euros, last year it grew to 2.38 million euros. The growth came from addition of a few very large scale insurance fraud cases – while in 2010 and 2011, the biggest ascertained fraud cases remained below 100,000 euros, last year there was an attempt to get nearly 400,000 euros.

The Union's damage prevention manager Erik Ernits stated that the tendency of growth of sums refers to organised groups and wilful crimes.

Ernits said that it is positive that all types of insurance fraud fell last year. The number of cases where insurance case was staged or wilfully caused fell most. That concerned mainly staged traffic accidents and thefts.

Estonia records EU's lowest government debt in Q3

Estonia had the lowest government debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio at 9.6% at the end of the third quarter, according to the latest data from the EU's statistical office Eurostat.

Estonia was followed by Bulgaria (18.7%) and Luxembourg (20.9%).

Latvia’s figure stood at 40.4% and was the sixth lowest government debt across the European Union, while Lithuania's government debt amounted to 40.6%, the seventh lowest in the EU.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP were recorded in Greece – 152.6%, Italy – 127.3%, Portugal – 120.3%, and Ireland – 117%.

Compared with the second quarter of 2012, 15 member states registered increases in their debt to GDP ratio in the third quarter, 11 saw decreases, while one did not register any changes.

The steepest increase was registered in Ireland – 5%, followed by Greece – 3.4%, and Portugal – 2.9%.

The largest decrease was recorded in Latvia – 2.6%, Malta – 2.5%, and Austria – 1.3%.

Five healthcare workers organizations in Estonia refuse to sign good will agreement

Five Estonian healthcare workers' organizations announced on Monday that they are not ready to sign the good will cooperation agreement aimed to guarantee sustainability of the healthcare system, claiming that it is vague and the social minister doesn’t want to take responsibility, LETA/Postimees writes.

The cooperation agreement, preparations for which started in October last year during the doctors and nurses’ strike, was convened by the social ministry and was chaired by the then social minister Hanno Pevkur. 22 healthcare organizations were invited behind the negotiations table, representatives of employees, employers, patients and state institutions.

After five meetings, a nine-page agreement was written up, that lists dozens of specific tasks with implementation deadlines that should make the system clearer for patients and healthcare workers.

Doctors Union secretary general Katrin Rehemaa said now that they submitted a number of proposals together with Healthcare Workers Vocational Union that did not reach the agreement or the wording of which was changed considerably.

The main criticism of the medical workers who refuse to sign the agreement is that the document doesn't list, as the aim of increasing healthcare financing, that it would increase to the 2010 average EU level by 2020 in Estonia.

Social minister Taavi Rõivas said that this would mean that there should be 1.5 times more money in healthcare than there is now. "This is complicated and impossible to achieve and as the social minister I cannot sign a financial obligation that exceeds the budgetary year sum," he said.

Rõivas said that a half of the organisations that compiled the agreement have said they would sign it. "Irrespective of how many signatures there will be on the agreement, work will be started on what is written in it," said the minister.

Estonia is lacking clear vision : Laar

In the opinion of Mart Laar, one problem facing Estonia today is lack of clear vision for the future. The ex-PM who is currently in wheel-chair because of a massive stroke that he suffered about a year ago said in an interview to Äripäev that the country seems to be moving without a clear purpose, policy-making is not systematic and this is a cause for crises. Below are abstracts from his interview to Äripäev.

Q: When will you publish your political memoirs?
I don’t know. I cannot rule out the possibility that I will never write them. It’s nice when people write books and memoirs of other people make me want to write mine. But at present they are not on the top of my agenda.

Q: Have you read Edgar Savisaar’s new book?
No, and I don’t plan to. The name is very promising and I understand that it talks about corruption. I though Savisaar was making a sincere confession, but it seems that he is writing about other people, not about himself. I must admit that this is not very interesting.

Q: How likely you think that Estonia will turn left?
Right-wing parties have been on power for so long and this is a risk because in politics it is clear that things change because people would like to see new faces. They would like to try something new, new concepts or trends. But this is a luxury that you can afford in a strong democracy. I don’t know if Estonia would survive such experimenting, life will tell. (…)
There is a possibility that when people come to power, they will also come to their senses. This is always a possibility and very welcome. But more often than not, it will not happen. Then it will be difficult, especially if you look at promises that have been made in public. When these promises get to be implemented, the consequences will be dire.

Center Party becomes the most popular party in Estonia

TALLINN – Estonian Center Party became the most popular party in Estonia in January, being supported by 28 percent of voting age citizens, a poll by TNS Emor, commissioned by the Public Broadcasting, indicates.

The opposition's Center Party was the only one that managed to increase its support rating in a month, by 4 percentage points.

If parliament elections took place tomorrow, 27 percent of respondents would vote for the other opposition party, Estonian Social Democratic Party. Their support fell by 1 percentage point in a month.

The governing Reform Party, which had held the top position in the party ratings for a long time, being as high as 39 percent in August last year, saw its support fall by 2 percentage points to 20 percent in January. The support to the junior coalition member, Pro Patria and Res Publica Party (PRU) also fell by 2 percentage points to 16 percent.

Emor said that the support between coalition parties that had a combined 36 percent support and opposition parties that had combined support of 55 percent hasn’t been as big since elections of 2007.

Among parties not represented in the parliament, the Greens had the highest support, 5 percent.

TNS Emor polled 8,997 citizens in voting age. Emor's party support rating includes the responses of people who had a party preference and thus the answers of people whose response was "cannot say" were eliminated. The share of people without a party preference was 38 percent in January.

Falcons Draft Spotlight : Margus Hunt, the pass-rusher from... Estonia?

Introducing a new series of posts that will spotlight one aspiring NFL player who could become a member of the Atlanta Falcons next April. Today's player: Margus Hunt.

Fakshemash, Falcoholics!

My name-a Alec Shirkey, long-time reader and first-time official poster. I'm a devoted Falcons, Braves and Dawgs fan, an aspiring sports journalist and an opinionated football enthusiast. You may have read some of my musings over at SB Nation Atlanta, or perhaps my overly-dramatic reactions on Twitter (@AShirkey). Maybe you haven't, in which case prepare yourself: it could get bumpy.

Suffice it to say, I'm real excited about joining the writing ranks of The Falcoholic. Hopefully the hazing isn't too unbearable (looking at you, Dave), though I'll admit I'm no stranger to the beer funnel.

With introductions out of the way, let's get started with our big Estonian friend Margus Hunt, whom Mel Kiper has going to the Falcons in his first mock draft of 2013:

Position: DE
School: SMU
Projection: Late 1st / early 2nd round
Measurables: 6'8, 280 lbs. Rumored to run a 4.7 sec 40-yard dash.
Comparable to: J.J. Watt (if we're being really optimistic)

Stats (2012): 31 tackles, 8.0 sacks, 11.5 TFL, 11 QB hurries, two forced fumbles, two pass deflections, three blocked kicks.

Deputy Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Estonia discussed Nagorno Karabakh conflict

YEREVAN - On January 25 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan paid a working visit to the Republic of Estonia. During the visit political consultations took place between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and Estonia. During the meeting with Mart Laanemäe the parties discussed a number of bilateral political, economical, cultural, legal and other issues. 

The necessity to reinforce bilateral relations has been acknowledged by both parties.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informed "Armenpress" that the two parties exchanged ideas on a number of issues of mutual interest. Special emphasis was laid on relations between Armenia and the EU and on the Eastern Partnership summit, which will be held in Vilnius in November 2013.  Extended discussions took place on regional issues and a row of issues regarding the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

In the frames of the visit discussions were held with the representatives of the Diplomatic School of Estonia and el. Administration Academy regarding the Armenian developments and issues concerning Armenia in the frames of activity of the Eastern Partnership.

Tallinn named one of world's most intelligent countries in 2012

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), based in New York, has named the 2013 Top 7 Intelligent Communities of the Year 2012, Tallinn has been listed in a ranking of the most intelligent communities, reports Tallinn.ee, referring to intelligentcommunity.org.

The following communities, drawn from the Smart21 of 2013, were named to the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2013 based on analysis of their nominations by a team of independent academic experts:

- Columbus, Ohio, USA: With an economically and racially diverse population, the city trails the US average in terms of per capita income, but has America’s highest concentration of Fortune 1000 companies per capita. Being the state capital has helped but the success of Columbus has been forged through collaboration among city government, academic institutions, businesses and nonprofits.

- Oulu, Finland: The mobile communications business has been good to Oulu, and the mobile business has become a threat to its future. The “Nokia risk” as Oulu’s leaders called it, materialized in the new century as the company failed to adapt to the rise of the smartphone. Yet Oulu has created 18,000 new high-tech jobs since 2007, thanks to a decades-old culture of public-private collaboration and its many high-quality educational institutions.

- Stratford, Ontario, Canada: At the turn of the new century, Stratford had a reputation for being quaint, cultured and out of the way, home to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and a 90-minute drive from Toronto, the business capital of eastern Canada. Strategic planning, beginning in 1997, has focused on preserving Stratford’s enviable quality of life while leveraging ICT to transform its economy

- Taichung City, Taiwan: When the city and county of Taichung merged in 2010, it created a huge metropolis uniting completely different economies: a major seaport city where 70% of employees work in services, and a rural county where 50% work in industry and agriculture is a significant source of income. The city’s leadership, under Mayor Chih-Chiang (Jason) Hu, was determined to create a whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

- Tallinn, Estonia: Estonia saw a major boom from 2004 to 2007, as loan capital poured in from Scandinavian countries. But when the financial crisis came, it hit Estonia and its principal city of Tallinn very hard. Yet beneath the froth, Tallinn has put into place the foundations of ICT-based growth that is generating a strong comeback.

Estonian banks earned more than 350 mln euros in net profit in 2012

Estonian banks earned more than 350 million euros in net profit in 2012, Eesti Pank said in its fresh financial sector review, informs LETA.

The loan and leasing portfolio grew by 1.6% in 2012. The growth was unevenly divided between the months and the fluctuations were caused by a combination of the financing of very large one-off projects and the writing off from banks' balance sheets of loans that had been assessed as uncollectible. The total volume of loans and leasing given to Estonian companies and households fell in December by 16 million euros to stand at 14.7 billion euros at the end of the year.

Companies took 22% more in loans last year than they did in 2011. The turnover of long-term corporate loans issued in December was 270 million euros, which was higher than in any month in the preceding two years. The main impacts on loan turnover came from large single loans made to the transport, real estate and infrastructure sectors, some of which were used for refinancing.

Last year, 16% more housing loans were given out than in the previous year. This led to a slight increase in the housing loan portfolio in the second half of the year. However, the decline in other loans at the same time was larger than this increase, which meant that total household loans and leasing fell by around 2% over the year.

Deer vandalize winter silage on Island

Farmers in Saaremaa say they have their hands full with red deer who are damaging their dairy herd's winter silage.

The deer are punching holes in sealed rolls of silage to try to get at the contents, a trend that becomes worse in colder weather.

Maku farm in Tahula village told the islands' daily Saarte Hääl that the damage started already before Christmas, when 80 bales were damaged.

For a while, the raids lessened during a thaw, but the deer are back and have damaged 300 bales out of 1,800 on that particular farm.

The Environmental Board's hunting specialist Ivar Marlen said that the agency's 2011 count found there were 1,700 red deer on Saaremaa. It says the population should be decreased and has taken steps toward this.

We are ready to create constructive relations with Estonia : Putin

Tallinn - Estonia's new Ambassador to Russia Jüri Luik presented on Thursday his credentials to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who promised that Moscow plans to create constructive relations with Estonia, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

"We are ready to create constructive relations with the Republic of Estonia, based on the principles of good neighbourliness and consideration of each others' interests. We are neighbours, we have a lot of similar interests. We propose to focus on that positive potential," Putin said.

Together with Luik, ambassadors of 18 more countries presented credentials to Putin.

Estonia uncovers 10 mln dollars in Russian money laundering case

Estonia's public prosecutor Piret Paukstys has said ten million dollars of stolen Russian tax money linked to the death of anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky was moved out of Russia through Estonia using ten separate companies and Internet transfers, EU Observer reports on Friday, writes LETA.

Lithuania, Cyprus and Switzerland are also chasing the stolen cash.

As reported, prosecutors decided to freeze some accounts in Lithuania-based bank Ukio Bankas that are related to the so called Magnitsky list. It is suspected that Vladimir Romanov-led bank was used to launder money pumped from the Russian budget – around 13 million US dollars.

Lithuanian law enforcement institutions are contributing a globally known investigation launched by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in mysterious circumstances. A total of 28 accounts at Ukio Bankas were frozen.

The amount of money held in these accounts are no large, not more than 40,000 dollars in each of them.

Around 40,000 young people in Estonia don't work or study

Every 6th Estonian resident in the age of 15-29 doesn't study or work, which means that there are around 40,000 of such people, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

"There are long-term jobless among them, people who work odd jobs unofficially, young mothers with small children, law violators with dangerous lifestyles and persons with physical or mental disability and just adventurers," said Tartu University sociology and social politics institute head Kairi Kasearu.

The corresponding statistics were published in a recent study by the European Fund for Improving Living and Working Conditions. Political studies centre Praxis together with the Tartu University and Estonian Youth Work Centre compiled a Youth Monitoring political review that focuses on that problem.

"These young people being left aside from the education and labour market system is a serious social problem that has far-reaching consequences. This is clear waste of potential of young people," said Youth Monitoring project manager Katrin Pihor.

"The result is a person outside the system who is hard to reach with traditional political measures," added Kasearu.

31 km distance of Tartu Maraton is almost booked

The 42^nd edition of Tartu Maraton will take place in less than a month, on the 17^th of February 2013. Statistics of the 22^nd of January say that there are overall 7200 people enrolled to the marathon meaning that right now there are already almost 1100 people more enrolled than at the same time last year and registration continues.

Shorter, 31 km distance has capacity to host up to 2000 participants of which 1500 places are already filled.

“If we take a look at the activity of the registration, it is highly likely that places for 31 km distance will be sold out before the day of the race,” says Indrek Kelk, the race director and explains that limitations are set up in order to guarantee safety on the course: “63 km and 31 km distance will be united 3 km after the start of 31 km distance and in order to regulate the intensity on the course, the limitation of 2000 was set.” Kelk also adds that the active registration might be due to the fact that winter came early this year giving all the skiers a good chance to pick up their trainings early.

Today Tartu Maraton has enrolled participants from 28 countries of which 5839 are male and 1361 female.

Early bird discount lasts until 27.01, but registration for both distances is possible until 16.02.2013 17.00.

Organisers are ready to host 10 000 skiers on the marathon day. Open Track 63, 31 and 16 races along with 2^nd Tartu Ski Relay and Tervis Pluss 12^th Tartu Maraton Ladie’s Race will bring together over 1000 skiers.