The new twelve

Third step of the trip of SirEurope (cfr. 19 e 23/2008) in the new enlargement Countries. From Baltic Estonia, former Soviet Republic independent since August 1991, the director of the Centre for the development of Pölva district, Kaire Mets, gave an insight into the pros and cons of EU adhesion. Almost four years have passed since Estonia joined the EU in 2004: how would you describe the influence membership is having on the Estonian socio-economic daily life?Joining the EU made a difference in peoples lives. I hope towards the positive direction. For instance economic convergence and free movement of labour meant that lots of Estonians moved abroad for work while national salaries raised and unemployment rate decreased to a record-low level of approx 4-5%. Statistically, salaries has risen from 2004-2007 practically 50% and in some cases people have moved back home already. At the same time, economy has grown rapidly too. GDP improved in 2004, 2005 and 2006 with an average growth rate of 8,7% per year.Which are the sectors in which Estonia aims at improving its performances, and what are your expectations concerning internal future developments?Let’s speak about society. I think that there are two main challenges. First, to improve political processes involving more citizens. Active citizenship and democracy means that people should be involved all the time not only during elections. It means that we need to build up social capital at horizontal level and stronger links to government and policy level. It means that the role of government should be changed too, to help and sustain institutions at lower level and people networks.The other challenge is in my understanding to build up a more coherent and balanced society, with balance between rural and urban life and income policies. The aim is the well being of people living in Estonia.How do you feel the changed international scenario and Estonia’s presence in most world and regional international organisations helps in making the Estonian People’s voice and problems more listened to?It’s difficult to see and understand how the picture looks like from the EU side, what is the Estonian impact to this arena. For me it seems that in some cases we are speaking a language others don’t understand. For instance, we see EU energy policy differently. While EU seeks energy supply from Russian gas pipelines, Estonians are very much concerned about why this pipeline has been planned without involving them despite the fact that the northern pipeline is planned under the Baltic Sea. We see lot of environmental risks there as well as political questions. On the positive side, I see that there has been a big shift I can describe as “policies takers from policies makers”. It means that Estonia is playing sometimes a significant role in favour of other former Soviet Republics like Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova whom we can offer our know-how and expertise on how to develop economy or facilitate democratic processes and active citizenship. Our reform experiences, good understanding of difficulties moving from soviet system to free market and democracy plus development aid we can offer enables us to help create policies. It concerns not only the central government but also provinces and towns. We have had several contacts with neighbours in Russia as well as Ukraine to help them in their way. Description sheet The Republic of Estonia (Eesti) has been independent since 1991, following the “pacific revolution” of the three Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the first to attain independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It borders on the Russian Federation to the East and on Lithuania to the South-East. The Northern Coast borders onto the Baltic Sea and on the Finnish Gulf. There are over one-and-a-half million inhabitants, 70% of whom live in urban areas. In the capital city, Tallinn, live 400.000 people. The national currency is the Kroon. Its population is slowly decreasing. The main religious confession is the Lutheran one. There are a significant number of Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist and Catholic faithful. Estonia is the recipient of a package of development structural funds for the period 2007-2013, amounting to 3.4 billion Euro. At Community level, it is represented by 6 MEPs (three are members of the European Socialist Party, two of the Liberal-Democratic alliance, and one is member of the Popular party) and by the European Commission’s vice-president Siim Kallas, in charge of administrative affairs, audit, and anti-rigging.