From: thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi (Tapani Hietaniemi)
Subject: ESTONIAN news, Jan 93, domestic affairs
Organization: University of Helsinki
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 16:59:36 GMT


More news from Tallinn:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Minor clarifications:
- 8 Estonian kroons (crowns), EEK <=> 1 DM
- Pro patria (Isamaa) = the party of president Lennart Meri and 
  prime minister Mart Laar
--------------------------------------------------------------

     ESTONIAN PENSION LAW DRAFTED DESPITE PROTESTS BY ELDERLY
                           RIIGIKOGU
        STILL NO FORMAL OFFER BY GOVERNMENT ON TAKEOVER
                     OF UNION BALTIC BANK
   BOARD OF STATE PROPERTY TO DISCUSSES PROBLEMS OF ESTONIAN
                     PRIVATISATION AGENCY
         DECEMBER'S AVERAGE WAGE IN ESTONIA 821 KROONS
  28,128 EMPLOYEES OF 325 ESTONIAN COMPANIES ON FORCED LEAVE
  LOCAL AUTHORITIES SET UP JOINT COMMISSIONS FOR TAKEOVER OF
                        EX-SOVIET BASES
       ESTONIA TRAINS DIPLOMATIC PERSONNEL FOR RUSSIA'S
                     FINNO-UGRIC REPUBLICS
"PRO PATRIA" ADMITTED TO EUROPEAN UNION OF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS


    ESTONIAN PENSION LAW DRAFTED DESPITE PROTESTS BY ELDERLY

The Estonian government has submitted a draft pension law to
the Riigikogu on January 13. According to it, pensioners will
be paid 85 per cent of the minimum monthly wage (300 kroons),
plus 0.6 per cent of the minimum wage annually, for each year
of their entire service record. The government's press service
asserted that if the law is approved, the average old-age
pension will amount to 322 Estonian kroons, while the average
size of all kinds of monthly pensions - 236 Estonian kroons.
Working pensioners will receive their pensions in full.

The government has also drafted a law on surplus payments to
pensioners over 80, to war veterans, to participants in the
resistance movement, to former labour camp prisoners and other
categories of pensioners, amounting to 10-12 per cent of the
minimum wage. Both laws are expected to go into effect on
April 1.

                           *   *   *
On January 12, several hundred pensioners continued to picket
the building of the Estonian government and parliament,
demanding that the subsistence stipends, paid to them instead
of the pension, be increased from 260 to 400 Eesti kroons. The
subsistence stipends, whose size does not depend either on
the service record, or on the wage or salary a pensioner once
received, has been paid to pensioners since the beginning of
1992, when the law on pensions was suspended.

Minister for Social Welfare Marju Lauristin believes that
the current economic situation does not allow the authorities
to increase pensions considerably. She said that the ratio of
the working citizens and pensioners is 2 to 1, and that the
size of the social tax coming to the state budget limits the
government's opportunities in the sphere of pension policies.

                           RIIGIKOGU

The Riigikogu on January 13 passed a bill on extending the
right of claim to former owners' property to the owner's
relatives. The new law stipulates that in case the former
owner is deceased and there are no direct heirs, the former
owner's brothers and sisters or their descendants will also be
eligible to apply for return of the former owner's property
situated on the former owner's land.
                           *   *   *
The deadline for proposing amendments to the Estonian draft
budget for 1993 expired at 16:00 on January 13. Parliamentary
committees, groups and individual Riigikogu members proposed
173 amendments. The chairman of the budget committee, Valve
Kirsipuu, said many of the proposals are business-like, but
some are clearly unacceptable. She said the committee would
declare its verdict on all of them on Monday. The second
reading of the draft budget is due next week.

        STILL NO FORMAL OFFER BY GOVERNMENT ON TAKEOVER
                     OF UNION BALTIC BANK

On January 13, the majority shareholders in the Union Baltic
Bank (UBB), forced to liquidate by the Bank of Estonia,
declined to comment on the government's spoken proposal to buy
the bank and say they have still received no formal offer. "If
a good enough offer will be made we are ready to discuss it,"
UBB supervisory council chairman and major shareholder Sulo
Muldia said. He added that one week after the formal offer
would be enough to convene a general meeting of the bank's
shareholders. But the government's plan in the first order has
to be approved by the parliament.

Estonian Finance Minister Madis U"u"rike, at a press
conference on January 12, said the government intended to buy
UBB for the money frozen at Vneshekonombank in Moscow. UBB
shareholders in that case would receive their money only if
Moscow decides to unfreeze the 40 million dollars (about 520
million kroons) on UBB correspondence accounts. The stock
capital of UBB is little over 10 million kroons, of which Mr
Muldia and Mr Luik together control about 3 million.

   BOARD OF STATE PROPERTY TO DISCUSSES PROBLEMS OF ESTONIAN
                     PRIVATISATION AGENCY

On January 13, the board of Estonia's Department for State
Property discussed the functions and operations of the
Estonian Privatisation Enterprise as well as its relations
with the Department. Heido Vitsur, chairman of the board, said
the privatisation agency should have greater powers but it
must not be the agency to decide which enterprises are to be
privatised. The companies for privatisation must be determined
by the state according to its needs and best interests.

Board members said that too many individuals in state-owned
companies and elsewhere feared privatisation and wished to
maintain the status quo. Major changes are feared by
employees, who are afraid of losing their jobs, as well as by
company leaders, who feel their future insecure in the case of
privatisation.

The meeting also issued a report on the results of
privatisation in 1992. Estonia last year earned a total of
20.4 million kroons from privatisation, including 3.3 million
from large privatisation and 17.1 from the privatisation of
small companies. The money was distributed as follows: Bank of
Estonia 14.5 million, the Social Fund 0.9 million, and the
government's special fund, 0.9 million.

         DECEMBER'S AVERAGE WAGE IN ESTONIA 821 KROONS

The average wage in Estonia in December was 821 kroons, up
12.4 per cent from the previous month, revealed the Ministry
of Labour on January 14. Officials at the ministry said that
the figure was somewhat higher than actual as the sums paid
last month included Christmas/New Year's benefits and advances
on dismissal. Also, some companies had been able to pay
November's wages only in December due to the commercial bank
moratorium. The average wage without the advance paid to those
dismissed for suspension of jobs would have been 807 kroons.

  28,128 EMPLOYEES OF 325 ESTONIAN COMPANIES ON FORCED LEAVE

As of January 14, 9,538 employees of Estonian enterprises are
on an unpaid leave, 11,150 workers receive partial pay for the
leave, and 7,440 have had their work days reduced. The number
of those on forced leave is greatest in Tallinn and the
regions of Tartumaa and East Virumaa. Eino Rohtmets from the
Labour Inspectorate said that with the consent of the
Inspectorate, the labour contracts of 28,128 employees of 325
enterprises has been changed. In 28 enterprises, the
Inspectorate demanded that the employees be partly paid for
the leave, or be eeployed part-time. 51 enterprises were not
given consent to change the labour contract.

  LOCAL AUTHORITIES SET UP JOINT COMMISSIONS FOR TAKEOVER OF
                        EX-SOVIET BASES

Leaders of Estonia's northwestern La"a"nemaa county and its
capital Haapsalu, together with representatives of the local
Russian military garrison, met on January 13 and ruled to set
up bilateral commissions for the takeover of military objects
around Haapsalu. Russia still maintains an air force garrison
and hydrographic service unit at Haapsalu, and an airfield and
housing complex at Ridala. "The garrison leaders expressed
readiness to turn the objects over to local authorities as
soon as possible," said the mayor of Haapsalu Tiit Beeren. The
meeting was also attended by Estonian Defence Ministry, local
police and Defence League representatives.

       ESTONIA TRAINS DIPLOMATIC PERSONNEL FOR RUSSIA'S
                     FINNO-UGRIC REPUBLICS

On the week of January 11, the Estonian School of Diplomacy
began to train one more group of 16 students, to be joined by
four representatives of the Russian Federation's Finno-Ugric
republic Mariy-El. The training will last for nine months and
consist of lectures and seminars, after which, there will be
two months of practical training at the Estonian Foreign
Ministry and final exams. The Estonian School of Diplomacy
has already trained six groups of students: four of them
specializing in diplomatic and international relations, one in
consular relations and another in international economic
relations.


"PRO PATRIA" ADMITTED TO EUROPEAN UNION OF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS

On January 14 the Estonian National Coalition Party "Pro
Patria" was admitted to the European Union of Christian
Democrats, which unites 26 parties of 21 European countries.
Of the former eastern bloc countries, the Hungarian Democratic
Forum is the only member of the organization.
--------------------------------------------------------------

forwarded with a minor clarification
Tapani Hietaniemi, Universitas Helsingiensis
                   urbs fennorum
                                             
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet