MINELRES: Fwd: RFE/RL: Estonian Parties Agree: No Changes in Citizenship and
Language Policies
MINELRES moderator
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Fri Jan 17 10:39:15 2003
Original sender: Snjezana Bokulic <[email protected]>
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 9, Part II, 15 January 2003
ESTONIAN PARTIES AGREE: NO CHANGES IN CITIZENSHIP AND LANGUAGE POLICIES.
Representatives of Estonia's eight largest parties agreed at a
roundtable meeting on 14 January that the country's citizenship and
language policies will not be relaxed after general elections in March,
no matter who comes to power, ETA reported. The decision was an indirect
response to a bill proposed by the Estonian United Russian People's
Party to change citizenship laws by exempting from the language and
constitution tests pensioners who have shown their loyalty to Estonia by
not seeking Russian citizenship, BNS reported. Education Minister Mailis
Rand suggested the Estonian-language exam might be made easier, noting
that a report by a Council of Europe committee to combat racism and
intolerance considered those tests too difficult. SG
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