TALLINN - President Arnold Ruutel met with various public and private officials at his Kadriorg residence on July 12 to discuss the row over rent ceilings, appealing to all sides to find a satisfactory solution.
Taking part in the meeting were Economics and Communications Minister Meelis Atonen, deputy chairman of the Parliament's economic affairs committee Sven Sester, chairwoman of the Center Party faction Vilja Savisaar, chairwoman of the Tenants' Association Helle Kalda and board chairman of the Association of Owners by Title Partel Tonsberg.
The president explained why he chose not to promulgate the act doing away with rent ceilings that Parliament had passed on June 15, while the other parties stated their arguments, according to the president's public relations service.
The subsequent discussion focused on different ways of scrapping the rent ceilings and not on how they could be preserved. The prevailing opinion was that granting local governments the right to establish rent ceilings would not help solve the problems created by the property reform.
Professor Arno Almann, representing the president's legal adviser, explained the aims of the property reform of 1991. He stressed it had been carried out to reorganize ownership relations to ensure inviolability of property and ensure free enterprise, make good the injustice done by violation of ownership rights and create conditions for transition to a market economy.
The other aim of the reform, Almann said, was to ensure that restitution or compensation of property to former owners or their legal successors did not violate the legal rights of other persons or create new injustices.
"The state took the obligation 13 years ago," Almann said, adding that the eventual solution of the problem must meet both these aims.
Different measures making it possible to organize the housing market and bring the property reform to conclusion in that respect were discussed at the meeting.
President Ruutel stressed the role of Parliament and the government in working out and implementing them. He also underscored that willingness of cooperation between the parties was in the interests of the whole country.
The president appealed to the parties to meet even before Parliament convened to resume discussion of the issue in order to find solutions acceptable both to the tenants and the owners as well as for the central authorities and local governments.
