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Books on Estonia
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Update No: 322 - (25/10/07)
Estonia is mired in numerous controversies right now, both at home and
abroad.
A corruption scandal
Two former Estonian government ministers and the CEO of the Baltic's biggest
construction firm have been named suspects in a wide-ranging investigation into
corruption.
Estonia's Security Police, Kapo, is investigating whether bribes were exchanged
in return for favourable land swap deals between construction companies and
government ministries.
Villu Reiljan, former environment minister, and Ester Tuiksoo, former
agricultural minister, have both been named official suspects, alongside
construction company Merko Ehitus and its CEO Toomas Annus.
The recent naming of suspects comes more than a year after the case was first
launched. Recent weeks have seen a flurry of activity at Kapo headquarters, with
a string of people being called to answer questions.
The allegations center on a series of land exchanges between the Land Board, a
department of the Environmental Ministry, and several businessmen, Einar Vettus,
Tarmo Pedisaar and Tullio Liblik. The former Land Board director general Kalev
Kangur has also been named a suspect.
The land exchanged was deemed unprofitable because it was restricted by
environmental controls, however the businessmen were able to swap it for
government-owned land in better locations.
The case has now widened to include allegations that Tuiksoo, the former
agricultural minister, accepted a bribe to relocate her ministry to a new Merko-constructed
building called Delta Plaza.
Tuiksoo denied any wrongdoing, and said the tender process to find a new premise
for the ministry resulted with no suitable applicants.
Reiljan, the former head of the People's Union party, aired Kapo's allegations
against him during a press conference on October 16.
Reiljan said police believe he received an apartment in a Merko building at a
discounted price, and he is further alleged to have taken part in a hunting
expedition that was paid for by the company.
In his defense, Reiljan said he had never received land, apartments, money or
other benefits. His lawyer, Aivar Pilv, has called for more detailed allegations
to allow his client to defend himself.
Merko Ehitus and Annus said it was "incomprehensible" why they were
named suspects, and said the company had acted within Estonian laws.
Under Estonia's criminal justice system, suspects are publicly named and their
alleged wrongdoings aired before any charges are laid.
Prosecutors said that it was possible that charges may not be brought against
people named as suspects if there was insufficient evidence.
Estonia's patience with Rene van der Linden has finally broken
Speaker of the Estonian parliament Ene Ergma has sent a letter to van der
Linden, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),
refuting numerous assertions he made during his recent visit to Estonia, reports
BNS. According to Ergma, van der Linden's comments provoked widespread
controversy and forced her to answer.
"Your recent repeated misleading statements have created confusion and
bewilderment both in the Estonian public and internationally," wrote Ergma,
of the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union.
The speaker added that the inaccuracies did not hurt Estonia alone but
discredited PACE and endangered its international standing.
"This leads to our request: give up spreading erroneous information about
Estonia," Ergma said.
The speaker of the Estonian parliament referred to Van der Linden's take on the
voting rights of aliens in local elections and the right of juveniles to apply
for Estonian citizenship.
"You repeatedly erroneously stated that stateless persons have no
possibility of voting in local elections in this country. This assertion is a
lie," Ergma wrote.
She pointed out that the Constitution adopted in a referendum in 1992 did not
link the right of voting in local elections with citizenship but only with
permanent residence in Estonia.
"According to our Local Government Councils Election Act, an alien who has
attained eighteen years of age by the day of election, who resides permanently
in the territory of the respective town of rural muunicipality and and resides
in Estonia on the basis of long-term or permanent residence permit is entitled
to vote the election," Ergma said.
The speaker said that van der Linden's assertion that children of stateless
persons born in Estonia were not granted the right to Estonian citizenship was
also wrong.
"The assertion is wrong as well," she said. "A person under 15
years old born in Estonia is granted Estonian citizenship by naturalization if
his or her parents apply for it."
Ergma underlined that in that case the person has to take no tests or pass any
additional clauses to be granted citizenship.
The parliament speaker added that van der Linden's attention had been drawn to
his mistakes even while he was still in Tallinn and expressed amazement that the
PACE president had apparently not made any effort to correct his erroneous
statements.
Excerpts from the Estonian Citizenship Act and the Local Government Council
Election Act were included with Ergma's letter, to confirm just how wide of the
mark Van der Linden is.
Even before his latest visit, van der Linden was widely seen as being strongly
pro-Russian, Estonians being very prickly on this matter. On his previous visit,
he was critical of Estonia's decision to relocate a Red Army memorial (as were
many others). On this visit he referred to there being "millions" of
disenfranchised people in the Baltic States.
Van der Linden isn't the only diplomat to be the target of Estonian ire. Another
recent visitor, the United Nations' special discrimination rapporteur Doudou
Diene has also come under fire, this time from Estonian President Toomas Hendrik
Ilves.
In an interview with the regional newspaper Valgamaalane, Ilves told Estonians
to be proud of their achievements.
"We need not pay attention to such propagandistic statements," Ilves
said, commenting on Diene's advice that Estonia should have several official
languages.
"If Diene recommended that several official languages should be adopted in
Estonia, I will recall that there are four million Turks living in
Germany," he added. "Why doesn't that country have several official
languages?"
Speaking of relations between Estonia and Russia, Ilves stated that the April
disturbances, the so-called Bronze Soldier riots, had been planned long in
advance - and not by Estonia.
"Russia has 143 million and Estonia 1.3 million inhabitants," he
added. "It is supreme arrogance to believe that we are going to influence
such a large country. If there is a desire to show us as being bad, they will do
it."
Ilves underlined that it was in Russia's interests internally to create a bad
reputation for Estonia.
Estonia FM puts a forceful case
The Baltic States are pre--occupied with energy issues as a winter looms. None
more so than Estonia since it had a nasty spat with Russia earlier this year
concerning removal of a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn and a
subsequent cyberspace-war.
Gazprom's threat to cut gas supplies to Ukraine over unpaid bills is being seen
as fresh evidence of Russia's desire to intermingle economic and political
policies, according to a high-level meeting of European Union foreign ministers.
At a meeting of the so-called "3+3 group" of Baltic and Benelux states
held in Jurmala, Latvia, all six representatives agreed that mixing strategic
and economic interests was now a fact of life in dealing with Russia.
Asked about Gazprom's threat to cut supplies to Ukraine as a result of a $1.3bn
debt, Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks said: "Maybe I can speak for
all of us. We briefly discussed this new information. There is no doubt that
energy plays not only an economic but also a political role in the 21st century
Russian-EU relationship.
"I think the EU has to be ready for such issues in the future as well, and
I must say that this discussion between Russia and Ukraine is at least partially
connected with the recent elections in Ukraine."
The Jurmala meeting was part of an initiative by some of the EU's smaller
countries to present a united front not only to Russia's increasing control of
energy supplies, but also to demands from some of the EU's larger member states
that they should have their voting power restricted.
Lithuanian foreign minister Petras Vaitiekunas was keen to remind the press of
the Baltic states' achievements so far, saying "We three Baltic countries
have really created a success story."
However, the problems associated with adopting a common energy policy with
regard to Russia became apparent when BNE asked if unity was possible on issues
such as the Nord Stream gas pipeline planned to run below the Baltic Sea, in
which Gazprom holds a majority stake.
Benelux countries stand to enhance their energy security by plugging into a
direct supply of gas from Russia, but the Baltic states and Poland would be
bypassed, allowing Russia to restrict supplies if it so desires, without
affecting delivery into the industrial heartland of Western Europe.
Dutch foreign minister Maxime Ferhagen gave the official EU line, saying:
"In general, we in the European union should deal with energy security and
energy supplies for the future. We need an energy policy as such in the European
Union. It is one of the issues that must be dealt with not only on an individual
basis but also in a European approach.
But even Ferhagen's reply had become somewhat equivocal by the end:
"Regarding the Nord Stream line, in general it is possible for member
states to have conflicts with suppliers, but there should be guaranteed supplies
for all members of the EU including the Baltic states, and that's where we need
an energy policy. I'm not against the Nord Stream pipeline, but I'm in favour of
energy solidarity and energy security for all the member states."
Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet was much more explicit, characterising Nord
Stream as a deeply flawed project from the outset in which "the political
reasons were more important than the environmental ones. We find that this is
not correct and that is why Estonia finally did not give permission [to Nord
Stream] to investigate the Estonian economic zone in the Baltic Sea."
"We have always said that it was not correct the way this project was
started, that it was discussed only with some countries around the Baltic Sea,
and not with all," Paet told BNE, alluding to the fact that Nord Stream
only contacted the Estonian government in its unsuccessful attempt to carry out
a sea bed survey, after Finland raised objections to the original route.
"There are lots of environmental concerns because we all know that the
International Maritime Organization declared the Baltic as a fragile sea area,
and that's why we find that it was incorrect not to investigate real
alternatives to this route.
"The main alternative was not investigated and the main alternative should
be on the mainland, not in the Baltic Sea," Paet affirmed.
Because of its wider EU implications, in many ways the foreign ministers'
conference was even more significant than another meeting being held just 100
kilometers away involving the prime ministers of the three Baltic States.
Latvian PM Aigars Kalvitis, Estonian PM Andrus Ansip, and Lithuanian PM
Gediminas Kirkilas met October 2 and 3 in Dikli, Latvia.
The Prime Ministers of the Baltic States discussed matters of trilateral
importance as well as current foreign policy issues.
On energy cooperation the Prime Ministers stressed the necessity of permanent
co-operation between the energy authorities and energy companies of the Baltic
States.
The Prime Ministers emphasized the importance of the integration of power and
gas supply systems into the energy systems and energy markets of the EU. Further
development and implementation of interconnection projects in the region of the
Baltic States should be fostered in order to ensure energy market integration
within the EU. In addition, it was agreed that the power interconnection
projects with the neighbouring EU countries should be further developed thus
paving the way for further integration into UCTE and NORDEL systems.
Other matters discussed included Schengen accession and cooperation, economic
problems, migration, emissions quotas and visa arrangements with the United
States.
The Prime Ministers also reaffirmed their support for Russia's accession to the
World Trade Organization. In this context they underlined the importance of
solving all relevant outstanding issues such as the elimination of
discriminatory railway tariffs and fulfillment of commitments regarding export
duties on roundwood timber.
There was some disappointment however that despite a concerted campaign to woo
the U.S. over introducing a visa-free regime, the legislation approved by
Congress does not fully meet expectations and as a result citizens of the Baltic
states will still be subject to artificial barriers. The Prime Ministers
reiterated that the visa free regime is one of the priorities of the Baltic
States towards the US and expressed their determination to continue an open
dialogue about political and technical aspects of the US Visa Waiver Program.
The next Prime Ministers' Council meeting will be held during the Estonian
presidency in 2008.
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