Prime Minister Andrus Ansip praised the sustainability of the country's economic and taxation policy, and said it could serve as a model in the European Union. Speaking in front of a gathering of Finnish businessmen in Helsinki, Ansip expressed hope that the country's simple, uniform, and transparent income tax system would be emulated throughout Europe. "I can see no reason for Estonia to deviate from the course that has brought it success and to believe that other approaches to the economy could be more successful," the prime minister said in his speech.
While in Riga last week, Ansip paid a visit to a local Estonian school. Both Latvian and Estonian education officials are interested in having the school renovated, and one of the options is through cooperation between the two governments and the City of Riga, according to reports.
Economy Minister Edgar Savisaar and Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin spoke in Moscow about continuing talks on a rail transport agreement between the two countries. A planned accord would reflect the changes resulting from reforms that have been carried out in both countries, the Ministry of Economy and Communications said. The two ministers found that the existing temporary agreements, signed in the first half of the 1990s, have been rendered obsolete by developments over the past decade. The two agreed on experts' cooperation to help prepare new draft agreements and review old accords.
Former Justice Minister Ken-Marti Vaher said that Savisaar violated the law by appointing his wife, MP Vilja Savisaar, to the council of the Port of Tallinn. "On the basis of Article 25 of the anti-corruption law, we are having a case of conflict of interests if an official in the course of his duties of employment is required to make a decision which significantly influences the economic interests of his close relatives," Vaher told the Eesti Paevaleht daily. The minister of economy and communications establishes the limits of remuneration for members of supervisory councils in companies wholly or partially owned by the state. Disagreement over Vaher's anti-corruption program led to the collapse of the previous government.
Film director Olav Neuland died in an aviation accident May 21. An amateur aviator, Neuland fell from an altitude of about 100 meters after takeoff in his motor deltaplane from an airstrip about 40 kilometers east of Tallinn. Neuland was killed instantly when the motor deltaplane crashed into a nearby field. Experts who arrived at the scene established that the crash was caused by a substandard carbiner hook on a wire connecting the gondola with one of the corners of the wing. Neuland, born in 1947, was director of a number of feature films.
