Eesti in brief - 2008-07-09

  • 2008-07-09
On July 8 the plenary of the European Parliament passed a resolution on the environmental impact of a natural gas pipeline that is planned for the Baltic Sea. The resolution acknowledges the need to expand the EU's pipeline capacity but also calls for strict environmental requirements. The European Parliament took this position on the pipeline after it received a petition from an environmental organization that has over 30,000 members, mostly in the Baltic states and Poland. The resolution suggests that Nord Stream research the environmental impacts of alternative pipeline options. It also criticizes energy cooperation that consists only of private interests, and suggests the cooperation of all the countries on the Baltic Sea. This is in accordance with the Helsinki Convention, which protects the marine environment of the Baltic Sea. The European Parliament suggested also that the Nord Stream consortium research the sunken warship wrecks and the Nazi chemical weapons dumps on the floor of the Baltic Sea. The warships contain live ammunition, and disturbing the weapons dumps could cause ecological disaster.

The Estonian money-laundering prevention bureau issued citations to eight credit loan providers, three of which 's Monetti, SMS Laen and Risicum Capital Estonia 's have appealed them in court. The bureau submitted the citations because some of the credit loan providers did not meet their clients before giving them loans, as required by new money-laundering and anti-terrorism laws. The citation issued to SMS Laen is now invalid, as the company has since met the requirements. The complaint of Risicum Capital Estonia is in preparatory proceedings in court. Helen Veski, the manager of Monetti, did not know when the proceeding would reach the court but presumed it would be sometime in the autumn. SMS Laen says it believes that identifying the client is very important and that it does everything it can to follow the rules and be transparent in its business operations.

France proposed cataloging the successful energy-saving methods of EU member countries. Economy and Communications Minister Juhan Parts said Estonia has some good advice to share. Although economic growth has been rapid in Estonia, energy use has declined due to intensive investments in the efficiency of buildings, power plants and the power grid.