Eesti in brief

  • 2014-02-05

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met with Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma on Monday in Tallinn, reports LETA. Andrus Ansip and Laimdota Straujuma confirmed at the meeting of the prime ministers of Estonia and Latvia that relations between both countries are very good and that there is close cooperation between the two countries in every field. According to Prime Minister Ansip, the cooperation and coordination have been excellent in terms of coping with the economic crisis as well as holding negotiations over the European Union’s new financial perspective. He expressed hope that good cooperation will continue in the future. Based on the indicators of the first nine months of last year, Latvia is the third investment destination for Estonian companies, where a total of 17 percent of direct investments by Estonia are channeled to. Latvia is ranked third as a trading partner – both imports and exports show growth. At the beginning of the meeting, Ansip introduced Estonia’s e-government work to his Latvian colleague, who was on her first foreign visit. The prime ministers then headed for the Kadriorg Art Museum for further talks.

According to Estonian Health Insurance Fund data, the share of overweight school children has doubled in Estonia as compared to nearly a decade ago, surging to 11 percent of the group, reports Postimees Online. The results of prophylactic checkups of pupils show that the main health problems of school children included vision problems (29 percent of pupils), posture problems (17 percent) and obesity (11 percent) last year. While the vision and posture indicators have remained unchanged, the share of overweight children has almost doubled as compared to 2005, when it was 6.6 percent. Among children who attended prophylactic dental checkups, a fifth had dental diseases. (Better care at home is clearly needed.) With this in mind, 2014 has been declared the Year of Physical Activity in Estonia, in order to increase the number of people involved in physical activity, improve the health of people and their work ability by advocating healthy lifestyles.

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will sign the Estonian-Russian border agreements on Feb. 18 in Moscow, reports LETA. The Foreign Ministers will sign the state border agreement between Estonia and Russia and the agreement on borders of the sea areas of Narva and Gulf of Finland between the two states. After the agreements are signed, the agreements have to ratified by the Estonian and Russian parliaments. The foreign ministers also plan to sign the agreement on the conditions of the locations of the Estonian Embassy in Russia, and the Russian Embassy in Estonia. The Foreign Ministries also agreed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Estonia in the second half of this year.