Postimees Digest, Friday, February 22

Photo: Toomas Huik

Postimees

NATO vows more exercises, practises defending Estonia

At NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels yesterday, promises were made to start serious planning of joint defence of own territories, after exit from Afghanistan. Vitally for Estonia, an emphasis was laid on a near-future event – large-scale exercises called Steadfast Jazz, to be held in November, concerning defence of a member state against military attack.

Since Estonia’s joining NATO in 2004 to the upcoming Steadfast Jazz, no military exercises of such scale have been held focussing on the scenario of defending a member from military assault.

Therefore, underlines Minister of Defence Urmas Reinsalu, it is a remarkable development that there will indeed be large-scale exercises with a scenario of a (imaginary) state launching military attack against Estonia, with NATO headquarters and allied forced acting out our assistance.

Intel Capital buys part of Fortumo.

Technology giant Intel's venture capital subsidiary Intel Capital and another venture capital firm Greycroft Partners have placed 10 million euros in Estonian mobile payments operator Fortumo. Head of Fortumo Rain Rannu said that cooperation with Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners will help the company to realize its growth plans more quickly including by way of strategic partnerships and purchases of other companies.

Rannu said that Fortumo will remain in Tartu and that the partnership will make it possible to hire additional workforce. The new investors obtained a minority holding in the company as the controlling participation will remain in the hands of Mobile Solutions. Fortumo makes it possible for people to use their mobile phones to pay for digital purchases. The company is active in 80 countries and cooperates with 300 mobile operators.

"Mobile payments have immense potential and Fortumo has all the premise needed to profit from the market of mobile-based payments," said Marcin Hejka, executive manager of Intel Capital's Central and Eastern Europe, Middle-East and Africa region.

Peep Peterson to head the unions.

The council of the Estonian Trade Union Confederation (EAKL) chose recent Transport Unions chairman Peep Peterson as the organization's new head yesterday. Peterson said that old rules are no longer enough to protect the rights of workers and promised to start work on a collective labor relations reform right away. The said reform would overhaul all acts pertaining to strikes, conciliation and collective agreements.

Peterson said that the EAKL will have to modernize both its reputation and structure over the coming years and adopt the best practices the world's unions have to offer. He expressed hope that Estonia could become a Nordic country where people would want to work as they do in Finland. Peterson promised to leave the Social Democrat Party (SDE) upon taking office as confederation chairman.

Ministers condemn disclosure of candidates' names.

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts said at yesterday's government press conference that it was a mistake to disclose the names of people who participated in the public competition to find a new head for the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA). Parts added that if all public competitions were to disclose the names of participants, next time people might avoid the competition altogether.

Estonian book wins weighty bronze

Book by Ivar Sakk, From Aa to Zz. The Concise History of Typography (Aa kuni Zz. Tüpograafia ülevaatlik ajalugu) was awarded bronze medal at the contest Best Book Design From All Over The World 2013. Professor Ivar Sakk (born 1962), who leads department of graphic design at Estonian Academy of Arts, compiled and designed the book on history on typography as part of his Doctoral thesis at the same academy. The design contest, organised by Stiftung Buchkunst (Book-Art Foundation), has a long history, this year’s contest being 50^th.