Presidential Roundtable in Estonia
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Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 14:11:25 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Presidential Roundtable in Estonia
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Vello Pettai <[email protected]>
Presidential Roundtable in Estonia
Presidential Roundtable in Estonia
On February 19 four members of the Presidential Roundtable on National
Minorities in Estonia announced a suspension of their activities in
the consultative body, citing what they said was a lack of
effectiveness and interest from Estonian political authorities towards
the work of the Roundtable. The four members where Vladimir Velman,
Aleksei Semjonov, Sergei Ivanov, and Hanon Barabaner.
The members claimed that the Roundtable had not been taken seriously
by the Estonian government, parliament or President in the drafting of
various new integration programs, legislative amendments and political
decisions concerning minoritiesin Estonia. In particular, the members
cited two recent legislative amendments, one to Estonia's electoral
laws (concerning the enforcement of Estonian-language requirements for
electoral candidates) and another to the language law.
In December, these amendments were in fact debated in the Roundtable
at the initiative of the President's representative to the Roundtable,
Vello Pettai. During that meeting several Roundtable members also
voiced their opposition to the amendments and their views were
transmitted to the President. In his final decision, however, the
President decided to promulgate the laws.
The decision by the 4 members to suspend their participation was
criticized by several other members, who felt that the Roundtable had
achieved a certain measure of progress. They noted that the
Roundtable was only a consultative body, which did not have veto power
over Estonian government institutions. Many acknowledged an
insufficient degree of contact with the Estonian government and
parliament, however, they also noted that one way to solve this is
through increased lobbying efforts by the Roundtable as a whole.
The Presidential Roundtable was originally created in 1993, when
Estonia faced a number of political crises concerning its large
non-citizen population. In 1997, its activities lapsed until it was
revived and reorganized in March 1998. Since the political situation
in Estonia had stabilized by then, the Roundtable's focus was now on
promoting long-term development of integration policy while also
continuing as a forum for dialogue on immediate political issues.
During this new period, a number of initiatives were taken, including:
1) two sessions devoted to reviewing the Estonian government's
integration policy,
2) a meeting of the Roundtable with the OSCE High Commissioner on
National Minorities, Max van der Stoel
3) a conference on regional issues in northeast Estonia,
4) a conference (attended by over 20 members of parliament) discussing
proposed amendments to the citizenship law (allowing for automatic
naturalization for stateless children),
5) the preparation of a 50-page handbook on the issue of stateless
children in Estonia,
6) a special session on minority sunday schools,
7) a session on the future of Russian-language education in Estonia,
8) a session introducing the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities,
9) the preparation (by an RT working group) of a 7-page analysis of
Estonia's compliance with the Framework Convention,
10) Roundtable participation in the drafting of Estonia's state report
about the Framework Convention (together with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs)
A number of these materials and additional information about the new
Roundtable are available at: http://president.ee/est/office/yl/yli.htm
The next session of the Roundtable will likely be in early April.
Vello Pettai
President's Representative to the Roundtable
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