They also stressed that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are equally ready to begin EU membership talks in 1998. Meanwhile in the Finnish capital, the Latvian and Lithuanian premiers were lobbing hard in a bid to persuade their Nordic counterparts to support the simultaneous start of EU entry talks with the Baltics, BNS reported on 10 November. Guntars Krasts stressed the Latvian position that Baltic unity will be endangered if only Estonia is admitted to such talks. Finland continues to support the European Commission's recommendation that only Estonia begin entry talks, while Sweden and Denmark say they will propose that Latvia and Lithuania be included in the first wave. During the turbulence of the past few weeks, the index has lost more than half of its value.
Analysts say the most recent slump was caused by continued panic selling among investors.
Shares in the Tallinn Pharmaceuticals Plant fell 35.5 percent within the first hour of trading, following claims in a local newspaper that the company lied about its ventures in Russia. Jurgen Conrad said that Kuchma and lawmakers may reach a compromise about the pace of privatization either through the president's sacrificing privatization chief Volodymyr Lanoviy or through a compromise on some other issue. Modeled on the Czechoslovak Charter-77, issued 20 years ago in Prague, the new group seeks to unite opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and to seek the establishment of democracy in Belarus. Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek outlined his program to the parliament on 10 November and won a 260 to 173 vote of confidence in his new government, PAP reported. The officials said the plane is noisy, slow, and easily detected, rendering it unsuitable for that purpose.