Prime ministers talk pork and energy

TALLINN – Despite recent recommendations by Romano Prodi that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania should chart individual path's toward European integration, cooperation was the main theme at last week's meeting between the three Baltic heads of government.

Baltic unity went so far as to coordinate the countries' time: the prime ministers agreed that the three states will not move to daylight saving time with the rest of Europe this spring.

Estonia decided last fall that it would not shift forward an hour in the spring, citing an onslaught of depression that usually accompanies the switch. Lithuania just recently rejoined its Baltic neighbors after linking its clock to Central European time for 18-months in an effort to be "closer" to Europe.

The top priorities for the former Soviet republics are to create a common Baltic energy market and to solve the pork row that has pitted the Lithuanians and Estonians against their Latvian neighbor for over six months.

The prime ministers hope to resolve the battle that started last year when Latvia slapped a 70 percent protective tariff on imported pork from Lithuania and Estonia by June when the premiers get together again.

"We have a common understanding that by the next meeting the situation will be accomplished and we will find some solution," said Latvian Prime Minister Andris Skele.

Skele said the countries are seeking help from the European Union and the World Trade Organization, of which Latvia and Estonia are members.

"We are in deep discussion…we think the solution will be found from the EU," Skele said.

Prime minister of Estonia, Mart Laar, added that there is strong will by the three heads of government to overcome their differences in opinions. The task of finding a solution to the pork row has been written into the resolution that came out of the Baltic Council of Ministers meeting and has been signed by the Skele, Laar and Andrius Kubilius, prime minister of Lithuania.

The prime ministers also hope to open a common Baltic energy market by 2002, they said at the press conference on Feb. 18. The market will link the Baltic states with Finland in the north and Poland in the south. A joint energy committee will work on the logistics of such a project in the coming months.

"This is a very important project and it will be a very strong market," Kubilius said. "In the near future, we will have clear proposals from strategic investors as to where financing comes from."

Skele also mentioned the possibility of creating a common gas market that may, in the future, merge the Estonian and Latvian gas companies.

The Baltic Council of Ministers also adopted resolutions to coordinate further their defense strategies, including joint purchases of defense equipment.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have already launched several joint military projects such as the Baltbat joint peacekeeping battalion, the Baltnet joint air space surveillance system, the Baltron joint minesweeping squadron and the Baltic Defense College.