Tallinn's new alcohol sale restrictions came into effect on Wednesday Aug. 1. Shops are now forbidden to sell take-away alcohol between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. The ban has also been adopted by the neighboring municipalities of Viimsi, Saue, Rae and Joelahtme. Keila, Maardu and Kernu municipalities have announced they will not apply such restrictions.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has suggested a referendum be held to decide the future of the long-debated Saaremaa bridge proposal. Ilves said residents of Saaremaa and Muhu islands should be polled to gauge their preference. He said similar projects on Danish islands generated controversy amongst the residents, but ultimately resulted in increased tourism.
The Green party caused a ruckus on Toompea Hill by successfully petitioning for an extraordinary session of Parliament, against the wishes of the ruling coalition. Greens spokesman Marek Strandberg said the session was necessary to discuss the nation's energy policy in the hope of avoiding punishment from the European Commission, which has stripped Estonia of much of its carbon dioxide emissions quota. The extraordinary session will take place on Aug. 14.
Russian-language high schools will be offered financial rewards to speed up the switch to the Estonian language. The Education and Science Ministry plan to offer the incentive to schools that teach an extra subject in Estonian on top of the one subject required by new language reforms. As much as 70,000 kroons could be given to schools per extra subject, according to a report in the Eesti Paevaleht newspaper. Russian schools will begin switching languages this September, when a social studies class must be given in Estonian.
Only weeks after being excluded from a Finno-Ugric conference in Russia, Estonia has announced it will allocate 100,000 kroons toward a project for the people of the Mari El Republic, a Finno-Ugric group inside Russia. The money will be used to fund camps for Mari children. Estonia's vocal support for Finno-Ugric people in Russia was cited as a possible reason why it was not invited to the recent conference in Saransk.
