BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

ECHR holds the Estonia violated rights during WWII monument riots of 2007

STRASBOURG - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held Thursday that Estonia violated its obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights (Convention) in connection with arrests and detentions that followed April 2007 riots over the relocation of a World War II monument celebrating the Red Army.

On September 22, 1944, the Red Army wrested control of Tallinn from the Nazi war machine. Three years later, a monument presently referred to as the Bronze Soldier, but originally named the “Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn” was unveiled in the city. It was built above a burial site where Soviet soldiers had been laid to rest. The monument, pictured above, featured of a bronze-cast Red Army soldier set against a plain stone backdrop.

In 2004, a growing number of local residents began to vocally demand the statue’s removal. From 2006 onward, clashes began to occur with increasing frequency between groups advocating for and against the statue’s presence.

In 2007, the Estonian parliament enacted a law providing for the exhumation and reburial of remains buried in inappropriately located grave sites. The law further provided for the relocation of war monuments.

In April of that year, Estonian police cordoned off the area surrounding the monument in preparation for the exhumation process. The following evening, crowds of angry protesters chanting such slogans as “shame!” and “fascists!” closed in on the sight. Some members of the crowd attempted to break through police barricades.

Tiiu Kuik : by David Roemer - Glamour - Italy - April 2013

model: Tiiu Kuik (Marilyn-ny)

photographer: David Roemer (atelier)

stylist: Valentina di Pinto (atelier)

make-up: Kristin Gallegos (clm)

hair: Adrian Clark (thewallgroup)

manicure: Liang (atelier)

Tallinn adviser quits office and party after scandal

One of the four Tallinn city officials shamed in a letter to Mayor Edgar Savisaar for not paying part of their salaries back to the party in the form of patronage has said he is leaving his post and the Center Party.

“It is my own decision, my moral position. Nobody forced me to quit. The situation had become uncomfortable for me,” Johannes Merilai, adviser to Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas, told uudised.err.ee on Wednesday.

He said the letter and the ensuing scandal drove him to leave the party and his post.

Merilai said he had paid the Party fees from his salary, but lately irregularly and a debt to the party had grown, but added that as a Tallinn city official, he has served residents of the city, not the party.

The scandal broke two weeks ago when Savisaar, the head of the Center Party, asked for the resignation of four city officials for failing to tithe a 5 percent fee to the Center Party, on top of membership dues. Two of the four officials, both members of the party, resigned a day later.

Priit Toobal, Center Party's secretary general, said in a press release that all Center Party members holding positions in the Tallinn municipal government had agreed in 2005 to pay 5 percent of their gross earnings to the party.

Eesti Ekspress published a list of positions that are required to pay the 5 percent levy. The list has 69 names, including the positions of the mayor and his five deputies, their advisers, heads of the city's districts, department heads, board members of Tallinn's foundations and business undertakings.

Kasparov promotes chess education in Tallinn visit

Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and political activist, gave a public lecture at Tallinn University on Wednesday, followed by a fundraising simul at a local café.

Kasparov visited Estonia a number of times last year, including for the Open Society Forum and a meeting of the Russian political opposition. Advocating for the incorporation of chess in K-12 education, Kasparov said Wednesday that a project introducing chess lessons in the curriculum of 12 Estonian schools last fall has been successful and will hopefully be expanded soon.

At the simultaneous exhibition, which was held as a fundraiser to support local chess programs, the grandmaster took on two Estonian MPs and the former head of Estonian Air's supervisory board, among others.

Earlier, at the lecture, Kasparov said finding the next Bobby Fischer was only a side effect of his initiative - the Kasparov Chess Foundation. The organization has brought chess to thousands of schools around the world, claiming that the game has all kinds of developmental benefits, including improving mathematics, creativity and self-esteem.

All children in Estonia should have citizenship : EU commissioner

Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks says that there are 1,200 children without citizenship in Estonia but all children should be guaranteed citizenship automatically when they are born, even if their parents lack citizenship, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

Commissioner Muižnieks ended his three-day visit to Estonia on Wednesday, saying that it is in the best interests of the child to get citizenship at birth since it is a key to enjoying all human rights.

Muižnieks welcomed Estonia child protection law reform but called the government to clearly ban physical punishment of children in all regulations.

The Commissioner said he was worried about long-term unemployment and the danger of social ostracizing and called the government to focus more on how to ease the situation of handicapped people.

Muižnieks said there is a major need to improve awareness of national discrimination and about submitting complaints concerning discrimination among employers and employees.

Second Auvere unit unlikely : Ansip

A planned, second boiler unit at Eesti Energia's oil shale-fired power plant in Auvere will probably not be built, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said Wednesday during question time in Parliament.

The decision largely depends on how the state-owned energy company's financial results will be affected by the opening of the electricity market in January, ETV reported.

Other deciding factors will be how well the first unit, currently under construction, performs, and whether environmental policies will permit the sale of oil and diesel derived from oil shale on the EU market.

Eesti Energia's contract with the builder has the option of building a second unit, and a decision must be made by next year.

"At the moment it cannot be argumentatively asserted that we definitely won't need the second unit in Auvere, but looking at market developments the indication is indeed that Estonia will probably limit itself to one new circulating fluidized-bed boiler unit in Auvere. But the earliest a decision will be made is at the end of this year, and more likely at the beginning of next year," Ansip said.

Estonian pharmacies can sell medicines via Internet

The Estonian Riigikogu approved on Wednesday the amendments to the medicines law, as the result of which, it is now allowed to sell and buy medicines via Internet in Estonia, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

The holders of general pharmacy operating permits get the right to operate long-distance sale of medicines for human healthcare as well as veterinary purposes.

Both over-the-counter and prescription medicines for humans can be sold long distance, but in case of prescription medicines, the prescription has to be an electronic one and recorded in the prescriptions centre.

The sale of prescription medicines used for veterinary purposes will be restricted since there is no digital prescription for these medicines.

Eesti Energia won't be listed at stock market during my term as PM : Ansip

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said when answering questions of MPs in the Riigikogu on Wednesday that the state-owned energy giant Eesti Energia won't be listed at stock market during his term as the Prime Minister, Äripäev.ee/LETA reports.

"I am convinced that current time is certainly not ripe for that since there is too much uncertainty in the energy sphere," said Ansip. "And when there is a lot of such uncertainty, I think that it is not reasonable for the state to list a part of Eesti Energia shares at the stock exchange."

Ansip added that it is not clear at what the economic results of Eesti Energia would be in the conditions of full opening of the electricity market to competition. "And if we cannot forecast that very clearly, then we apparently cannot forecast the right and just price that we want to get for these shares from the market someday," said Ansip.

Ansip added that it isn’t known either what the productivity of the shale oil plant that hasn’t yet been launched would be.

"Thus, yes, since I have declared that this period of elections will be the last one for me in the job of the prime minister, I dare say that in the time that has been left, it isn't possible to reach clarity in these unclear issues enough to list the shares at the bourse," said Ansip.

Estonia government wants to create joint Rail Baltica company in 2013

Consultations will start in April between the three Baltic States that aim to form a Rail Baltic joint venture before the end of the year 2013, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

The first meeting at the ministerial level takes place on April 12 when Estonian economy minister Juhan Parts will present to his colleagues the Estonian position.

Although each member state has to carry out the preliminary project and evaluation of environmental effects by themselves, the position of Estonia is that the joint venture should be created as fast as possible. "It is important that the company would start looking at the project as a whole, would represent the business interests of the project in the planning stage and the stage of compiling the preliminary project, prepare financing of the project, development and marketing issues," Parts explained at the government press conference on Thursday.

The joint venture should be the developer of the project and later infrastructure administer and operator.

Estonia thinks that Riga is the suitable location for the joint venture. The share capital should be equal among members but its size hasn’t been divided. "The range in the 2014-2017 period is not over 2 million euros," Parts said.

Parts said that Finland and Poland will also be offered to participate as shareholders.

Ansip repeats, less conditionally, that current term will be his last

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's purportedly open-ended statement that his current term as premier would be his last has been reiterated in the context of a specific proposal.

Responding to a query from the Center Party during question hour today, Ansip said the state-owned energy company Eesti Energia would not be listed on the stock exchange during his time in office.

"As I have declared that this election period will be my last in the office of prime minister, I can confidently say that it will not be possible to list the shares on the stock exchange in the time remaining," he said.

Ansip first made remarks about his last term in February 2012, but questions have been raised over whether he meant that only in a case where the government collapsed before elections. He later made a remark that seemed to indicate that he might prefer to retain party leadership and take the Reform Party into new elections, which are scheduled for 2015.  

On the subject of the energy sector on Wednesday, Ansip said due diligence would be complicated following the still-crystallizing situation on the power market following deregulation in January.  

Ansip to meet with Russia’s PM Dmitri Medvedev in St. Petersburg

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that he plans to have a meeting with Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in April, writes ERR.

Speaking in Vikerraadio, Ansip said that the meeting would be held in the framework of the Baltic Sea environmental protection conference to be held in St. Petersburg on April 5 and 6.

According to Ansip, there are indications that there will be bilateral meetings between him and Medvedev at the conference.

He added that it was not the first time that he and Medvedev were meeting and that the two had met also in Laos.

Ansip said, however, that if the main issues in such large conferences take more time than planned, there is no guarantee that small planned meetings take place It would be Ansip’s first visit to Russia as Prime Minister of Estonia.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonian-Russian border agreement could be concluded without a reference to the Tartu Peace Treaty : Ansip

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said in an interview to the public radio Vikerraadio on Friday that he supports the idea of the Tartu University international law professor and Foreign Policy Institute director Lauri Mälksoo to conclude the Estonian-Russian border agreement without a reference to the Tartu Peace Treaty, Postimees Online reports.

Ansip noted that the state's legal consistency is extremely important and the border agreement that tackles only border issues doesn't make the Tartu Peace Treaty non-existent. "Regulated border policy is better than unregulated border policy," he said.

Ansip added that foreign ministries and experts, at the initiative of the parliament, are working on the border agreement negotiations at present. No documents ready for signing have yet been compiled.

Tartu University international law professor and fresh Foreign Policy Institute director Lauri Mälksoo said recently in the press that the Estonian-Russian border agreement could be concluded already this year if it was stipulated that the border agreement doesn’t regulate anything else besides the location of the border.

Estonian and Russian foreign ministers signed the border agreement between Estonia and Russia in May 2005. The Riigikogu ratified the agreement that summer but added a preamble that states that the new border agreement changes partly the state border line determined with the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 but won't affect the rest of the matters regulated by the treaty. Less than a month later Russia announced that it will withdraw its signature from the border agreement claiming that the preamble that Estonia added enables to present territorial claims against Russia. Estonia has repeatedly said that it doesn't have any territorial claims against Russia.

Estonia's successful startups valued at EUR 235 million

Experts estimate that the combined value of Estonia's six most successful startups Creative Mobile, Grabcad, Fortumo, Transferwise, Zeroturnaround and Erply could be 305 million U.S. dollars or 235 million euros, Eesti Päevaleht wrote last week.

The expert panel judged the game developer Creative Mobile and engineer network Grabcad to be worth 100 million dollars each. Both Transferwise, the peer-to-peer money transfer service, and mobile payment solutions provider Fortumo were valued at 40 million dollars.

Zeroturnaround, developer of Java productivity tools, was seen to be worth 10 million dollars, and the value of Erply that specialises in business management software was put at 15 million dollars.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonia was comparatively richer in 1930s, says historian

Jaak Valge, a well-known historian and Tallinn University researcher, says that Estonians today are worse off than in the 1930s in comparison to the rest of the continent.

“If the current Estonia is more than two times poorer than Finland, then before [World War II] Finland was a quarter wealthier. While Portugal is presently richer than Estonia, Estonians were far more wealthy in the 1930s than the Portuguese, “ said Valge, speaking on ETV on Sunday.

Readjusting to euros and valuing one old Estonian kroon to eight euros, Valge said that teachers might have been paid around 120 kroons or 960 euros a month, officials more and skilled laborers 720 euros.

Food costs made up the largest expense sector in the 1930s, with butter costing around 16 euros per kilo, twice as much as today, meat was around 8 euros per kilo, potatoes 60 cents. Rent would have been cheaper, costing around 80-240 euros for a one- or two-room flat.

Clothes and shoes were far more expensive, costing around 300 euros for a cheaper suit and 80-240 euros for shoes or boots.

As of Wednesday, March 27, the “re-independence “ period of Estonia will have lasted longer than the first interwar era of freedom.

Estonia may get one of the world's largest offshore wind farms

Baltic Blue Energy, a company owned by oil and logistics businessman Enderl Siff, plans to build an offshore wind farm between the two islands, writes Saarte Hääl.

The farm would have a total of 388 wind generators and have a total capacity of 2,716 MW, according to the application filed to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

It would make it one ot the largest in the world.

The area has one of the fastest winds in Estonia. Estonia has one of Europe's leading countries in wind resources, and is only second to England.

According to experts, such projects cost about 1.5 million euros per megawatt to develop.

No deal with the Center Party : Ansip

Commenting on Thursday's vote on the Parliament's deputy speakers, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that it was a show of individual sympathies, not any secret agreement with the Center Party.

“MPs are free, they vote according to their hearts,” said the Prime Minister, speaking on ERR radio on Friday. The coalition's target was to elect Ene Ergma (IRL) as speaker and Laine Randjärv (Reform Party) as one of the two deputy speakers, said Ansip.

Coalition parties secured another term for IRL's incumbent, Speaker of Parliament Ergma, who was supported by 81 of the 101 MPs and had no opponents.

In a separate vote, Randjärv received 38 votes, Jüri Ratas /Center Party) 31 and Eiki Nestor (Social Democrats) 28, but as the Center Party has 21 seats and the Social Democrats, who recently joined forces with five ex-Center Party MPs, now have 24 MPs, Nestor was expected to be voted in.

Estonian Air sells subsidiaries and raises prices

TALLINN – Estonian national carrier Estonian Air, which last year had a loss of nearly 50 million euros, intends to sell its subsidiaries, make at least 50 employees redundant and raise prices of tickets to compensate for expensive fuel, Postimees writes.

Estonian Air announced on Thursday that it had a loss of 49.2 million euros on 91.5 million euro turnover last year. While the turnover grew by 20 percent, losses reached 184 percent.

The company's finance manager Wade Stokes said that the activities of the previous managements of the company caused the loss.

In order to climb out of the losses, the company will make several changes in the next few months, the first of which is sale of subsidiaries. Estonian Air has stakes in three companies: Amadeus offers travel services, Eesti Aviokutuse Teenuste AS sells plane fuel and Estonian Air Regional works on local flights. While in the first two, two foreign companies have a stake and they might be interested in buying the majority stake, the latter belongs to Estonian Air fully and it may be hard to find a buyer.

Low water halts heavy vehicles access to Hiiumaa

Rohuküla sea-monitoring station stated the Väimameri Sea water level as minus 75 cm i.e. lower than the 69 cm forecasted earlier, setting limits on ship traffic between mainland and Hiiumaa, with heavy vehicles essentially not carried at all.

Ferryboat Muhumaa only takes passenger cars, passenger buses and staple cargoes (post, food), said OÜ Väinamere Liinid.

As water level remains at critical levels, crossings are slower and ferry departures are late. Muhumaa departed from Heltermaa at 5 am and from Rohuküla at 6.50 am.

In ports, cargo is being selected with utmost care and heavier vehicles will have to consider that before water level rises to minus 65 cm, minimum, they cannot be carried. Väinamere Liinid asks carriers of goods to postpone their trips until the situation normalises.

Yesterday, ferryboat Harilaid with a lower draught was engaged. However, due to extreme ice conditions, Harilaid is quite unable to function and crossings dragged to over three hours.

Perth people trafficking ring busted

Two young Estonian men were lured to Perth by the promise of work but when they arrived they allegedly were threatened, had their passports taken and were told they would have to work to pay off a debt.

Detective sergeant Ken Foster said the two men, who are in their 20s and not previously known to one another found, themselves in a difficult situation, being in a foreign country and with limited knowledge of English.

"They come from different parts of the world, their views of policing are somewhat different to what we understand here, they're frightened of that type of thing, they are also a long way from home, and threats were made against them, not only them but their families in Estonia," he said.

Four Estonian nationals living in Perth, who had organised for the two men to fly to Australia, are due to appear in court next month on a number of human trafficking related charges. The alleged traffickers had set up a website for a work hire company and interviewed the men online via Skype.

Welding jobs were organised for the two men who arrived in February last year on working holiday visas which they had applied for online. According to police, the men were told they would be given assistance to get 457 working visas. It is alleged that their passports were taken from them under the threat of violence and they were told they owed money to the men.

Viking Lotto brings biggest ever lottery winning in Estonia

A lucky Estonian lottery player won a half of the Viking Lotto jackpot on Wednesday – 768,713.16 euros, which is the biggest lottery winning in Estonia ever, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

The winning ticket was bought from the Internet. The win was a half of the total jackpot and the other half went to Norway.

The previous biggest lottery win came to Estonia also thanks to Viking Lotto, a year ago a lucky lottery player won 733,813.52 euros.

In 2012, the lotteries organiser Eesti Loto paid the state 7.74 million euros of gambling tax. It paid 24.6 million euros as winnings in lottery games.