Eesti in brief - 2010-09-23

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said on Sept. 16, in an interview after the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, that in his estimation, pan-European Roma policy is needed, reports EPL Online. “Speaking of the issue of the Roma, it is not the right time to say who is right and who is not. As far as I understand it, the French government has the right to defend the citizens of France,” Ansip said. “A common EU policy is needed in regard to the Roma and that issue has to be worked on,” he added. Ansip recalled that two years ago, Roma were sent out of Italy, too. “Without a specific policy, it can be repeated somewhere else in the future,” he said. Ansip stressed though that all Roma who were sent out from France received monetary compensation, and they left the country voluntarily.

Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (PRU) chairman Mart Laar said on Sept. 16 that the wage increase of high Estonian state officials that was planned to take place next spring will be postponed for a year, reports Postimees Online. “When the compiling of the next budget starts, the government will have to face the situation again. The situation when high state officials would be the only ones in Estonia to get a wage increase is relatively unthinkable,” said Laar. He said that next year, the temporary wage regulation that in 2008 froze wages of high state officials will remain in force. Adoption of a new high state official wages system, that takes the president’s wage as the base rate, would have cost around 60 million kroons (3.8 million euros) more than now.