Estonian PM starts visits preparing for EU presidency

TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas was set to kick off a series of visits on Monday preparing for the upcoming Estonian presidency of the EU Council.

The visits will take the prime minister to Slovakia, Hugary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania from Monday to Wednesday.

In remarks released ahead of the trip, the prime minister said that it's usual that the head of government of the country assuming the presidency will visit as many member states as possible to present the priorities of the presidency and discuss opportunities for intensifying cooperation, spokespeople for the Estonian government said.

"Visiting member states ahead of the presidency is a good way to present to colleagues the priorities of our presidency, but also to hear about the expectations and thoughts of other countries for the coming half-year. We will speak about the key topics for Estonia and the country that hosts the visit," Ratas said.

In Bratislava on Monday, the prime minister of Estonia is scheduled to meet with his Slovakian counterpart, Robert Fico. In the second half of the day Ratas will head to Budapest to meet with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Ratas is scheduled to meet in Prague on Tuesday with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. After that he will head to Ljubljana to meet with Slovenia's Prime Minister Miro Cerari.

On Wednesday, Ratas is scheduled to meet in Bucharest with Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindean and President Klaus Iohannis. 

Joint press conferences have been scheduled with the prime ministers of each of the countries to be visited.

Ratas will return to Estonia on Wednesday afternoon.