Estonia PM Satisfied with the Outcome of EU-Russia Summit

EU Business

November 26, 2004

Estonian Prime Minister Juhan Parts said on Friday that he was satisfied with the outcome of the European Union-Russia summit and expressed hope that a border treaty between Estonia and Russia would be signed soon.

"I am satisfied with the results of the EU-Russia summit because several questions that are important also for Estonia, especially the still unsigned border treaty with Russia, were discussed at the meeting," Parts told AFP in an interview.

"The border treaty between two neighbouring countries should be one of the most basic treaties and because of that it has been very hard for Estonia to understand why Russia delayed signing it for so many years, despite Estonia regaining its independence 13 years ago," he said.

"I am glad Russia has now indicated that the treaty may soon be signed.

"I believe we should also thank our partners from the EU for that because the matter has been raised several times in EU-Russian meetings," Parts said.

The Estonian prime minister also welcomed an EU decision at the summit in the Netherlands on Thursday to start regular consultations with Russia on matters concerning human rights and other basic freedoms.

“I appreciate the decision as it will also give Estonia a chance to develop an open and constructive dialogue on human rights with Russia. It will give us a chance to ask Russia for explanations of human rights matters worrying us, like the situation in Chechnya, cases of extremism and attempts to limit media freedom," he said.

"Despite the fact that Russia may try to politicise minority matters in Latvia and Estonia during these consultations, we have nothing to hide. Our partners know Estonia is a democratic state respecting the rights of all people, including minorities.

"The situation of the Russian-speaking community in Estonia is in line with European norms," Parts added.

Moscow regularly charges both Latvia and Estonia, -- both republics of the Soviet Union until 13 years ago and which have large ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking minorities -- with repressing minority rights.

The two Baltic states maintain that their top priority is consolidating their re-acquired statehood, sometimes through cultural and linguistic steps that may be at odds with Russia.

Russia has so far refused to sign a border treaty with them both.

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