Foreign ministers of Estonia and Finland call for continued EU reform

The Finnish minister, Erkki Tuomioja, who met with his counterpart Urmas Paet in Tallinn on Monday, told reporters that continued reform of the EU will be one of the issues on the agenda of the Finnish presidency in the second half of next year.


Erkki Tuomioja

TALLINN, Dec 19, BNS - The ratification of the Constitutional Treaty of the European Union no longer seems likely but the reform of the bloc needs to continue, foreign ministers of Finland and Estonia find.

"A new agreement is needed for the foundation of the EU," Tuomioja said.

As Paet sees it, a number of provisions should be extracted from the EU charter and enforced separately if the Constitution fails to be ratified as it stands.

"Important areas for the EU are cooperation to fight crime and terrorism, and the common foreign and security policy," the Estonian minister said.

According to Paet, overregulation of some areas could also do with a review.

The EU has had enough time for deliberation following the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by the French and Dutch referendums and should now move on, Paet said.

The EU charter has till now been approved by Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Referendums in France and the Netherlands said "No" to the treaty.

The Estonian government sent a bill on ratifying the EU Constitution to parliament on May 10.














Press conference

Estonia and Finland considering joint gas pipeline

Estonia and Finland are considering an idea of building a natural gas pipeline between the two countries on the floor of the Gulf of Finland, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told reporters.

"A breakeven study for an Estonian-Finnish gas pipeline is underway," the minister said.

According to Paet, the pipeline would improve the region's security in the area of energy.

His Finnish counterpart, commenting on a Russian-German gas pipeline project, said it cannot be ruled out that Finland will in future join the pipeline.

"We are interested in new gas connections and Finland may in the future need more gas than now," Tuomioja said.

Environmental security must be strictly observed during the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline, Tuomioja said.

Paet added that the Baltic Sea was recently designated a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area and conducting environmental studies for the Russian-German pipeline is a matter of high importance.

In his words, Estonia cannot be happy with the way the Russian-German pipeline deal was concluded. Exchange of information and cooperation among the countries on the Baltic rim should have been better, he said.
















Erkki Tuomioja and Urmas Paet

Estonia and Finland planning business ban-related accord

Estonia and Finland are planning an agreement whereby a ban of business imposed on a person in one of the countries would apply in the other as well.

The question was discussed at a meeting in Tallinn between foreign ministers Urmas Paet and Erkki Tuomioja.

Paet told reporters the idea is to extend a business ban imposed in Estonia to Finland and vice versa.

"This will rule out the possibility that a person who for instance has run afoul of the commercial code in Estonia will move from Estonia to Finland and be able to continue doing business there undeterred," the minister said.

© Baltic News Service