Postimees Digest, Tuesday, March 5
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People's Assembly discussions day to cost 50,000 euros.
The Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations (NENO) has said that the People's Assembly project's discussions day will cost between 50,000 and 70,000 euros depending on how much support the organizers can raise. The bulk of financing will be provided by the Open Estonia Foundation whereas event organizers, discussion moderators, helping hands and translators will all work for free. Around 30,000 euros will be spent on choosing and transporting participants. The organizers aim to assemble 500 people from different age and gender groups and from all over the country to provide as broad a cross-section of society as possible.
Estonian women strike gold in European Commission
This decade, ranks of Estonian officials in European Commission have been on the rise, with Estonian’s share in commission far larger than in EU population. Estonian ladies, in particular, have been very victorious at grabbing positions.
At the start of the year, the commission had 202 officials recruited from Estonia, which equals 0.9 per cent of the entire officialdom of 23,600. Population-wise, however, Estonians only make 0.3 per cent of EU (Eurostat figures at start of last year).
In 2010, 187 permanent officials with Estonian background worked at the commission (not including contracted employees).
Editorial: political parties propagating prudency
This May, Silvergate celebrates its 1st anniversary. And, as we are happy to admit, the parliament has not let the time go waste: as promised, proposals were collected to amend Political Parties Act. The catch was processed, best bits picked out, and now a draft legislation stands ready in Ministry of Justice, supposedly specifying the basics of financing the parties – and the monitoring thereof.
Mikk Salu: facing the fact of people leaving
Just happened to read about Hungary, the way things are looking: a third of youth talking of leaving, the newspaper headline (from couple of years ago) stating that it’s all over with Hungary. A million is getting out. Folks can’t pay for their homes any more. All is bad, the country is bleeding, something needs to be done. Sound familiar? Sure. Estonia’s the same, both the talk and the deeds.
Looking around in Eastern-Europe, it’s quite the same story all over. Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia etc fear the same: masses might leave. No matter the different policies, more to the right or to the left, taxes lowered or raised, social housing provided or not, wealth redistributed or left untouched. Emigration is still the same.