Eesti in brief - 2004-02-19

The government last week approved a bill on fines for excessive stocks of sugar. Fines are set for every 100 kilograms exceeding the 500-kilogram limit, and companies will have to pay a customs tax of 35 euros plus a fine of 1.21 euros per 100 kilograms.

Companies having less than 500 kilograms of sugar as of May 1, 2004, need not worry. All fines collected will help Estonia to pay the fine to the EU that could be imposed for excessive food stock. The bill is to be confirmed by Parliament after experts assess the normal storage capacity of local warehouses.

In August of this year 98 soldiers from Estonia will replace the contingent of Latvian soldiers for six months in NATO's missions in Kosovo, Serbia. The Baltic states rotate their personnel in Kosovo according to a joint deployment project between the three countries. Six Estonian peacekeepers currently serve in Afghanistan and over 50 in Iraq.

Taxpayers have submitted nearly 18,000 tax reports for 2003 by Feb. 17. Some 11,000 of them were filed online on Feb. 16 when the Tax and Customs Board server was opened to register last year's reports.

A 22-year-old man identified as Olev is under criminal investigation led by the security police for leaving a xenophobic comment on an online news portal last year. Commenting a news story about the relations between Israel and Europeans, the suspect wrote an anti-Semitic statement. According to a study carried out by the Estonian Language Institute, the sentence provokes nationality related hatred and violence, the police said.

The Tallinn city government decided on Feb. 16 that its contract with the Falck Eesti security company is not favorable to the city and needs to be reconsidered. Falck Eesti provides Tallinn with parking-fee collection and receives 45 percent of the revenue of total collected fees, while the rest goes to the city.

Despite previously made promises, the private university Audentes did not hire Avo Viiol (see photo), former head of the Culture Capital Foundation, who was released from prison last week where he served his term for major embezzlement. The university stated it currently has enough staff and does not see any employment option for the ex-con. Viiol was released 14 months before his official term ended as the court considered he would have more options for returning nearly 544,000 euros he had embezzled from 1999 to 2002.

Former PM Mart Laar left for Iraq on Feb. 17 to advise the new Iraqi administration. A Pro Patria spokeswoman said Laar had been asked by the Iraqis to share Estonia's experience as a country in transition.