Ansip finishes Baltic tour

TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has highlighted the need for the Baltic states to create a common energy market after meeting with Lithuanian PM Andrius Kubilius.

"The sooner we implement the requirements of the third EU energy package on natural gas sector, the better it will be to create a fully-fledged energy market. Priority should be given to a close cooperation in this field between the three neighbouring Baltic states," Ansip said. 

The Estonian head of state also used the opportunity to confirm his country's participation in the construction of Lithuania's new nuclear power plant.

Ansip's meeting was part of a short tour through Latvia and Estonia in which he met with his government counterparts as well as prominent businessmen.

While in Latvia, Ansip endorsed a new report - produced jointly between the Latvian and Estonian ministries of foreign affairs - on cooperation between the two countries.

“Human relations are the basis for various forms of co-operation and this is also true of the implementation of the Report on Future Estonian-Latvian Co-operation. The report is not confined to intergovernmental activities. At government level, the relations between Estonia and Latvia are very good. In order to put the report’s ideas into practice, it is also important to involve universities, local governments, business partners, and all those Estonians and Latvians who have mutual interests,” Prime Minister Ansip said.