Mr Jüri Luik

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia

TALLINN

The Hague

8 December 1994

Reference:

No 3053/94/L

OSCE Ref. Com no.1

Dear Mr Minister,

As the second reading by the Estonian Riigikogu of the draft new law on citizenship is approaching, I would like to remind you of my letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia of 6 April 1993, which contained comments and recommendations on the legislation on citizenship (especially recommendations nos. 1-7).

It is, in my view, especially important that the law will make clear, beyond any doubt, that the residence criteria of five (plus one) years of permanent residence counted from 30 March 1990 will be based on the time of actual residence in Estonia, and that the period spent in Estonia will be calculated both on the basis of permanent registration in the former Estonian SSR and on the basis of residence permits, permanent or temporary, under the new Law on Aliens. Thus non-citizens who have been residing in Estonia since at least 30 March 1990 would fulfil the residence requirement on 30 March 1995.

In earlier conversations with your Government, I was left in no doubt that the language requirements for naturalisation would not be prohibitive. I am referring, especially, to the following assurance given to me by Prime Minister Laar on 11 July 1993, which was made public, with his consent, the following day:

"4) As far as the requirements for citizenship are concerned, the Government intends to take concrete steps in the near future to ensure that the recommendations made on this subject by the High Commissioner on National Minorities last April will be put into effect. Directives will be issued to ensure that the language requirements will not exceed the ability to conduct a simple conversation in Estonian and the requirements will be even lower for persons over 60 and invalids."

I express the hope that the legal provisions regarding the language requirements for naturalisation will be in conformity with this assurance.

Yours sincerely,

Max van der Stoel