Small parties rally against EU membership

TALLINN - Six minor political parties issued an anti-EU declaration Aug. 15, stating they have all the solutions Estonia needs if its people decide to stay out of the union. And a request sent by one of the parties to the country's security police to investigate the issue is the first that has called European Union accession a crime.

The Democratic Party, the Independence Party, the Christian People's Party, the Russian Party in Estonia, the Russian Unity Party, and the Social Democratic Labor Party signed the declaration. The latter is the only one represented in the Parliament.

The declaration suggests that Estonia's independence and sovereignty, established by the constitution, would be threatened by EU membership. The parties announced they have economic, geopolitical and foreign policy alternatives so that Estonia can prosper outside the EU.

The same day, Aug. 15, the Christian People's Party filed a written complaint and request to the security police to investigate whether EU accession accords with the constitution and whether it endangers the nation's sovereignty.

The security police deal with serious crimes, including those against the state.

The complaint says that the parties that won in the last parliamentary elections in Estonia and formed the current three-party ruling coalition have not received a mandate to violate the law, or "abandon the nation's independence." It also blames the officials who are coordinating Estonia's EU accession of surrendering national sovereignty.

In 1996 a special government-appointed commission of lawyers concluded that Estonia's constitution demands that a referendum is necessary before the country joins the EU.

A spokesman for the board of the security police, Olari Valtin, told The Baltic Times that the request had been accepted. Specialists from the board are now working on the case and will respond by Aug. 27.

Valtin said that it was the first official request that described accession to the European Union as a crime. He said it was hard to predict what would happen if the board agreed with this argument.

The state says it is doing its best to inform Estonian residents about EU matters. A free phone line (800 3330) open since May 2000 is meant to satisfy people's thirst for information.

The line provides friendly and attentive service from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and for the remainder of the day and night it is possible to leave a message on an answering machine and get a callback later on.

In the meantime, the latest poll by the market research firm ES Turu Uuringute AS has revealed that almost half of Estonia's residents have no idea how they would vote in an EU referendum. Only 27 percent of respondents were sure they would back accession, while confirmed EU-skeptics made up roughly 24 percent. The rest were unsure one way or the other.