Eesti in brief - 2010-12-09

  • 2010-12-08

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip confirmed at the Baltic States and Polish heads of governments meeting on Dec. 5 that Estonia is interested in participating in the Lithuanian nuclear power plant project, reports Delfi. “Although today Estonia can supply 100 percent of our own electricity needs, it is important for us to verify the sources of electricity production…” Ansip said in the meeting in Warsaw where Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish prime ministers discussed the region’s energy issues and exchanged positions about the upcoming EU summit. Ansip said that the progress in the Lithuanian-Polish 1,000 MW electricity connection project is a good message to states by the Baltic Sea about increased energy security. Other energy topics discussed were a liquefied natural gas terminal to be built in Swinoujscie, Poland and the possibilities of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland to build a LNG terminal in one of these states.

Estonians brought to the banks over 16 million kroons’ (1 million euros) worth of coins with a total weight of 115 tons during the campaign “Bring coins to the bank” in October and November, reports Aripaev Online. Estonian Banking Association CEO Katrin Taliharm said that the most active periods were the first and last week of November, when a third of the coins were brought to banks. Estonians can prepare for the transition to euros that takes place on Jan. 1 by exchanging kroons for euros without a service fee and buy ‘starting kits’ of euro coins. There are still nearly 140 million kroons’ worth of coins in circulation, a large part of them in people’s homes. Kroon coins can be used till Jan. 14, since Estonia adopts the euro on Jan. 1 and that will be followed by a two week parallel use period.

The joint offer of Estonia and France for the location of the new EU IT agency that Estonian Interior Minister Marko Pomerants and French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux presented on Dec. 2 at the EU Justice and Internal Issues Council meeting in Brussels got the unanimous political support of member states, reports LETA. The IT agency will be called European Union law, freedom and security sphere large-scale IT systems operative management board. The headquarters of the agency will be located in Tallinn. The operative management of servers will stay in Strasbourg, France, where the servers guaranteeing EU internal security are located now. Pomerants said that the process has lasted for 3.5 years and the work of very many state and private sector representatives has gone into it. The formal approval of the agency decree with the European Parliament will take place at the beginning of 2011. The agency will take over managing large-scale IT systems in 2012.