TALLINN - Estonia and Finland have marked a jointly built or run nuclear power plant in the Baltic state as one of many possible development projects between the two countries.
Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Matti Vanhanen, his Finnish counterpart, signed a rapport outlining several aspects of strategic cooperation between the two Finno-Ugric neighbors.
According to the government's press office, the rapport, signed in Helsinki, was compiled as a sort of brainstorm to raise ideas on how to boost competitiveness of Estonia, Finland and other Baltic Sea states in the framework of the Lisbon Agenda and increasing globalization.
The agreement places particular emphasis on the two countries' competitiveness in the fields of science, technology and innovation.
The authors 's Gunnar Okk, vice president of the Nordic Investment Bank, and Jakko Blomberg, former Finnish ambassador to Estonia 's give a total of 55 recommendations and visions of bilateral cooperation.
One of those includes building a nuclear power plant in Estonia as well as a second underwater cable 's Estlink2 's that would connect the two countries' power grids.
Estonia stands to lose its oil shale industry due to EU laws regulating emissions of greenhouse gases. The government is placing much of its hope on carbon catching technology and a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. Earlier Estonia said it would like to control 400 megawatts of output at the new plant.
Meanwhile, France's energy and development minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, said during a visit to Tallinn that Estonia's special interests can be taken into consideration in the climate and energy package being prepared in the European Union.
After meeting with Economy Minister Juhan Parts, Borloo said that it is conceivable to increase the share of funds flowing into state coffers from the sale of emission quotas that the state can plow back into the energy sector.
According to the present vision, this is 15 percent of the trade quota proceeds; in Estonia's case, rechanneling all the money into the energy sector could be considered, the French minister said.
The new quota distribution system will go into force in 2013. All enterprises that need emission quotas will have to buy them from the state at an auction. Currently enterprises are assigned a part of the necessary quotas for free.
Parts reiterated Estonia's stance that it is necessary to ensure that electricity produced outside the EU 's that is, Russia 's competed on the EU market on equal conditions with electric power generated within the bloc.
Estonian officials fear that the Baltic state could be overwhelmed with cheap Russian kilowatts once the system changes.
Borloos said that state support to the energy sector is supposed to stimulate energy efficiency and is not meant to fill budget holes. Borloo said he hopes the climate and energy package will be adopted before Christmas. France took over the rotating EU presidency this week.
