Eesti in brief - 2009-01-07

  • 2009-01-07
Residents of Hiiumaa Island are planning to turn to the European Parliament with a petition against plans to build a wind farm. According to Kristi Ugam, one of the activists collecting signatures, they hope to collect at least a thousand signatures. Once the signatures are collected they will be sent to the European parliament, Estonian government and the president, as well as to the Hiiu county government. "Despite the size, there are no plans of feeding any of the output into Estonian power grids, but to export it all. It must be pointed out that in other countries wind farms are local property," said Ugam. Rural communities' governors have expressed worries that the high-voltage power lines will affect local environment as well as affect human health. The wind generators are to be erected by Canadian company Greta Energy, represented in Estonia by AS Raunissaar.  The planned capacity is 500 megawatts, which would mean building about 250 turbines up to 150 meters high.

The Estonian state budget has allocated 5.75 million euro for its parliamentary parties. The state subsidy will go to all the parties that collected at least 1 percent of the votes in the last parliamentary elections. The Reformist party, with 31 seats in Parliament, will receive about 1,767,802 euro. The second largest party, the Centrist party with 29 seats, will receive about 1,653,750 euro. Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, both represented by 19 seats will get about 1,083,491 euros each. The Social Democratic party, with 10 seats, will receive 570,258 euro while the People's Union and Greens of Estonia, with 6 lawmakers from each, will get 342,155 euro each. The Christian Democrats, which are the smallest party having only collected 1.7 percent of the votes, will receive 9,615 euro.

Estonian parliament Speaker, Ene Ergma has appealed to the people to participate in the forthcoming European Parliament and local council elections. "In difficult times people may get the feeling that nothing depends on them and they therefore do not consider it important to take part in elections. I am convinced that every person's decision is important. By the choices we make we are responsible for Estonia's future," said Ergma. In her New Year's address to the nation, Ergma also said that "only an economy based on knowledge and technologies could ensure constant success for a small country such as Estonia." Ergma wished people "sticking together and caring for each other, as well as determination and optimism."

The number of companies going bankrupt in Estonia is increasing. In December in Estonia 36 companies went bankrupt. According to information provided by the Commercial register, this is 2.7 times more than for the same period in 2007. For all of 2008, 255 companies went bankrupt. This is 56 percent more than the year before. Most of the bankruptcies were registered in the fourth quarter, a total of 91 companies. For the same period in 2007 the number was 51.