Ansip looks to Brussels in next move

Because Urmas Klaas becomes the next Mayor of Tartu, the Estonian Reform Party will revise its European Parliament elections candidate list and might include former Prime Minister Andrus Ansip in it, reports Delfi.

The Reform Party board will discuss supplementing the European Parliament elections candidate list on Friday, March 28. Klaas, who was one of the 12 candidates in the list, has informed the party that he won't have enough time to participate in the election campaign or work in Brussels because he becomes the mayor of Tartu. The Reform Party chairman, Ansip who starting on March 26 is a Riigikogu member, might take his place, Delfi claims.

Being elected into the European Parliament doesn’t mean that Ansip couldn’t become Estonia's next European Commissioner – he can work in the European Parliament till autumn and then start working as the Commissioner if the government appoints him there. So far it has been confirmed that Estonia's next European Parliament candidate is Ansip.

The 12-member list of the candidates, approved at the end of February includes as the top candidate Riigikogu member Kaja Kallas, the daughter of Estonian European Commissioner Siim Kallas, and also Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, MP Igor Grazin, Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi, Riigikogu deputy speaker Laine Randjarv, current European Parliament member Vilja Savisaar-Toomast, MP Rait Maruste, Culture minister Urve Tiidus and MPs Aivar Sõerd, Margus Hanson, Urmas Klaas and Arto Aas.

European Parliament elections take place in Estonia on May 25. Registration of candidates starts on March 26 and will last till April 10.