OFF THE WIRE

AG MINSTERS UNITE: Baltic agriculture ministers sent a letter to European Union Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler on April 19, calling for a similar mechanism for applying farming subsidies to new members as for the existing 15 countries of the European Union. "The lower levels of quota for the new member countries continues to be our joint concern," Estonian Agriculture Minister Jaanus Marrandi told a news conference in Tartu, after meeting with his counterparts from Latvia and Lithuania. In the letter, the three ministers said they wanted their countries to be granted the same mechanism for applying farm subsidies as enjoyed by the existing member countries. "The letter contains technical proposals, which are aimed at making sure we get equal treatment from the EU," the Estonian Agriculture Ministry's deputy chancellor Toomas Kevvai told AFP. "We would have liked to discuss the EU's official position on agriculture and the new member countries, but the EU only has the blueprint, not the final proposal as yet." The three ministers will meet again in early May in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to continue "making our joint voice heard on the concrete figures proposed to us by the EU", Kevvai said. (Agence France-Presse)

INSURERS REJOICE: Lithuanian insurance companies wrote a total of 194.5 million litas ($48.63 million) in direct insurance premiums in the first quarter of 2002, an 85 percent over the same period a year ago, according to the State Insurance Supervisory Authority. The growth is mostly attributed to a marked increase in automobile insurance ahead of the implementation of mandatory third-party liability insurance on April 1. Third-party liability automobile insurance totaled 66.01 million litas in March, which represented 74 percent of all non-life insurance premiums, according to the State Insurance Supervisory Authority. (Baltic News Service)

VP LICENSE RENEWED: Riga City Council has lifted the suspension of the Lithuanian-owned VP Market's building permit to construct a hypermarket in the Riga suburb of Plavnieki. City officials halted construction of the hypermarket last week because VP Market did not submit a survey of local residents with its building permit applications. VP Market officials argued that the license was suspended to help protect local retailers from foreign competition. According to the survey, conducted by VP Market and the local polling firm SKDS, 306 of the residents polled were in favor of the market while 87 were opposed. City officials are scheduled to meet with VP Market building planners this week to discuss some changes requested by the city, including adding more green space between the building and the nearby apartment buildings. (BNS)

MINUS THE NEGATIVE: The international rating agency Standard & Poor's has upgraded Lithuania's long-term foreign currency rating from BBB- to BBB. All the other ratings were left unchanged and their outlook is stable, the agency reported on April 22. Lithuania's long-term foreign currency rating was bumped up because of the government's plan to place a new 10-year Eurobond issue worth 400 million euros ($368 million) on international markets. The agency said that the rating was supported by the country's efforts to maintain a tight fiscal policy and a significant pick-up in the pace of structural and fiscal reforms as well as successful harmonization of national legislation with the EU law, the Lithuanian Finance Ministry reported. (BNS)

NET FUZZ: The Estonian government announced April 19 that it is creating a police unit to deal with information technology fraud. The "Internet police" will begin operations in 2003 and will initially have five investigators and 500,000 kroons ($29,400) in equipment. Ahti Leppik who manages the Estonian arm of the Business Software Alliance, an international organization that fights software piracy, said that the unit was long overdue. Among the crimes the unit will investigate are malicious distribution of computer viruses, computer hacking and manufacturing and retailing of pirated software. (BNS)

BORROWING UP: Although the number of bank clients securing loans in the Baltics remains low, people are more willing to borrow money, according to a survey by the polling firm Emor. The survey showed that 17 percent of Latvian households had loan debt in 2001. In Estonia the figure was 21 percent of households and in Lithuania it was 9 percent. Households planning to take loans in the next 12 months make up 24 percent of the total population in Latvia and Estonia, and 15 percent in Lithuania. Many respondents said the loans would be spent on real estate - 60 percent in Estonia, 58 percent in Latvia and 45 percent in Lithuania. (BBN)

AIRBALTIC POSTS PROFIT: The Latvian national airline airBaltic bucked industry trends to post its first ever post-tax profit last year, due to cost cutting and the buoyancy of the Latvian economy, said a company spokeswoman. The airline, which is 47.2 percent owned by Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS), posted a 2001 profit of 56,000 lats ($88,800), said airBaltic spokeswoman Vija Dzerve. "The economy in Latvia is growing and there was an increase in the number of passengers in the first nine months. Seeing upcoming problems we looked at operations from different angles and have been very careful with expenditures," said Dzerve. With its fleet of six aircraft airBaltic, which was founded in October 1995, serves cities in the Baltic Sea region. Passengers can reach other destinations through links with Lufthansa and SAS. The state has said it would retain a 52.6 percent stake in the company until Latvia's expected accession to the European Union. (AFP)