Opposition cries foul over nomination of ex-PM Mart Laar

Opposition politicians are not happy over the nomination of former prime minister Mart Laar to head the supervisory board of the Bank of Estonia, reports Postimees.

“I am not too sad about the exit of Jaan Männik, but I was expecting a less political replacement,” said Eiki Nestor, vice chairman of Social Democrat parliamentary faction.

According to the Social Democrat, Laar is likely to have the support from IRL and Reform Party that he needs for the nomination to become official, but Social Democrats and Centre Party are still considering their support.

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Estonian, Russian PMs avoided thorny issues

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev made sure that no thorny political topics were raised during their meeting in St Petersburg on Friday, writes Äripäev.

Commenting the meeting that was held in the framework of the Baltic Sea States Summit, Ansip said that he and Medvedev discussed possibilities to remove obstacles from bilateral trade.

“We both stated that our trade has grown notably in recent years. While in 2000, Russia accounted for 2.4% of Estonia’s total exports, the figure is now between 12 and 16%.” Ansip said that Medvedev also mentioned rapid growth in tourism of Russians into Estonia which is growing between 30 and 50% a year.

Both found that the current border crossing system was not effective for promoting economic and tourism relations.

Speaking of bilateral relations, Ansip said that economic relations between Estonia and Russia are now the best in the last twenty years.

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Tallinn sucking in residents from Northeast Estonia

More than 4,000 people became residents of Tallinn in January alone, mainly as a result of domestic migration from Northeast Estonia, writes Postimees.

Yevgeni Solovjov, Mayor of Kohtla-Järve in Northeast Estonia, says that Tallinn is attracting residents of other counties thanks to its benefits including the free public transport.

“We expected it so it’s no surprise. We don’t have enough jobs in our county and they are moving elsewhere for work,” said Solovjov, adding that while, before, people remained residents of their home counties also when they were working elsewhere, but they are now re-registering themselves in order to use free public transport in Tallinn.

Haldo Oravas, governor of Viimsi municipality, said that Viimsi municipality is offering tax-exemption from land tax. Homeowners in Viimsi who have a property of 1,200 sqm can save between 350 and 400 euros a year.

“I would not be surprised if there are families where the father is registered in Viimsi to get the land tax benefit and the mother is registered now in Tallinn to get free public transport,” he said.

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Minister of Justice resigns

In what seemed to have been a long-overdue decision, Minister of Justice Kristen Michal announced yesterday that he was stepping down.

He said after meeting with MP Andrus Ansip on Thursday that he had decided to step down in order to defend the Reform Party and the government’s professional ability.

Michal said that it was difficult to remain Minister of Justice in the situation where the justice sector needs important changes, but they cannot be implemented because of attacks targeted at him.

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Social Democrats call for extraordinary elections

Opposition party Social Democrats say that extraordinary elections are the only way out from the political crisis that Estonia is in today.

The party made a statement on Monday in which it called other parliamentary parties to hold extraordinary elections.

„The government’s long-term unwillingness and inability to communicate with the third sector and social partners, the inability of ruling parties to see the society’s expectations for a more honest and open government, the Reform Party’s financing scandal and the public perception that the members of the government and the parliament are deliberately lying to the voters have pushed Estonia into one of its deepest political crises after the restoration of independence,” the party said in its statement.

Other parties announced it was a bad timing for such a move because the parliament was currently deciding the next year’s draft budget.

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Ämari is important air base for NATO

Estonian Defence Minister Urmas Reinsalu has described the soon-to-be-completed Ämari air base in Estonia as one of the most important bases for NATO in the Baltic countries and the area of the Gulf of Finland.

The Ämari air base is an important deterrent signal of NATO that has a practical military purpose as well, the minister told BNS in an interview. “NATO fighter jets make identification flights primarily above international waters in the Baltic Sea area on the trajectory Kaliningrad – Gulf of Finland. Therefore Ämari has a deterrent dimension; it has a military meaning and a certain significant role in various NATO plans,” he said.

The investment in the Ämari base made partially with NATO’s support is a big but very sensible investment, according to Reinsalu. “Our region is the only region of NATO where the alliance actually does not have military supremacy. In our region it is Russia that has mechanical military supremacy today. Therefore NATO must show its presence in this space, and this presumes our developing a rotating NATO base in Estonia,” Reinsalu said.

Lt. Col. Jaak Tarien, newly appointed commander of the Estonian Air Force, said in his inauguration speech last week that the Ämari base will perform two very important tasks in Estonia’s national defence. “First, when our NATO allies start to frequently fly above Estonia it will be a clear signal to our potential adversary that Estonia is not alone but is part of NATO. Second, should that deterrence be not enough, Ämari air base will be the point through which troops of NATO allies, which will repel the enemy attack, can be brought in the quickest.”

Bringing the contribution of the Air Force to Estonia’s national defence together in one sentence, Lt. Col. Tarien said: “The Air Force of Estonia cannot be measured by how many planes we have, but by what kind of combat assets of NATO allies are ready to arrive in Ämari.”

Source: Estonian Review

84 100 asylum seekers in EU 2011

The EU27 Member States granted protection to 84 100 asylum seekers in 2011 compared with 75 800 in 2010. The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status1 in the EU27 were citizens of Afghanistan (13 300 persons or 16% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Iraq (9 000 or 11%) and Somalia (8 900 or 11%), reported Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. 

In 2011, 365 600 decisions on asylum applications4 were made in the EU27, of which 237 400 were first instance decisions and 128 200 final decisions on appeal. Decisions made at the first instance5 resulted in 59 500 persons being granted protection status, while a further 24 600 received protection status on appeal6. In total, of the 84 100 persons who were granted protection status in 2011, 42 700 persons were granted refugee status, 29 400 subsidiary protection and 12 000 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. In addition, the EU27 Member States received 4 100 resettled refugees. 

The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 25% for first instance decisions, split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (21%) and humanitarian status (4%). For final decisions on appeal the recognition rate was 19%, again split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (17%) and humanitarian status (2%). 

In 2011, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in the United Kingdom (14 400), followed by Germany (13 000), France (10 700), Sweden (10 600), the Netherlands (8 400) and Italy (7 500). These Member States accounted for more than three quarters of all those granted protection status in the EU27. 

See also – Decisions on asylum applications in 2011 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-19062012-BP/EN/3-19062012-BP-EN.PDF

Estonia most peaceful post-Communist country

Estonia was ranked 41st in the 2012 Global Peace Index, while Lithuania was 43rd and Latvia was 45th,

Estonia is also the highest-ranked post-Communist country in this year’s index.

The top three countries in the index were Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the GPI ranks 158 nations.

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President for second term

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was re-elected for a second term as Estonian president in late August, will be sworn in today.

Ilves, 57, has led the country since October 2006. Estonia’s president is elected for a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms.

In line with Estonian law, the president is elected by Parliament. A total of 72 out of 101 lawmakers supported Ilves’ candidacy in the August 29 vote, with a required minimum of 68 votes.

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Office of the President

Mart Laar to step down as chairman of IRL

Current chairman of junior coalition partner IRL, Mart Laar, says in an interview to Postimees that IRL needs to find a new leader in a couple of months.

“It is a decision which I made after this year’s elections. Since IRL did well in the elections, it has made it easier for me to step down.”

According to Laar, he has been in party politics for over twenty years. “It’s not nice to feel like a dinosaur and wait until your are carried out feet first..”

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