According to Countryaah.com, with capital city of Tallinn, Estonia is a country located in Northern Europe with total population of 1,326,546.
In March 1999, Mart Laar was appointed prime minister. In the area around Lake Peipus, which forms a significant part of the border with Russia and where 95% of the population speaks Russian, a program was started to reduce social aftermath, following extensive redundancies of Russian-speaking non-Estonian speakers. Estonian families in the city of Narva took in Russian-speaking young people to reduce social distress.
See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for how EE can stand for Estonia.
In Tallin, the funeral of an Estonian officer who led a Nazi unit during World War II led to protests. Prime Minister Laar described the officer as one of the country’s most prominent soldiers, stating that it was the country’s duty to show him similar honor, but the parties representing the Russian-speaking minority perceived the incident as support for fascism.
In October 2001, Arnold Ruutel took over the presidential post. He was formerly a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
In 2001, Prime Minister Laar handed over the mayor’s post in Tallinn to the opposition, triggering charges of treason from his own government coalition. He therefore resigned from the post in January 2002.
The EU summit in Copenhagen in December 2002 approved Estonia’s accession to the Union on 1 May 2004. It was subsequently confirmed by a referendum in Estonia in September 2003, with 67% voting for the accession. In parallel, NATO accession was negotiated in place, and Estonia was formally admitted in April 2004. See campingship.com for Estonia tour plan.
The March 2003 election was won by a center-right coalition that inserted Juhan Parts as prime minister.
At a summit in January 2004, the Presidents of Estonia and Cyprus signed two cooperation agreements – one on education and culture, and one on combating organized crime. It was considered by international observers the beginning of a new era of cooperation between Estonia and the Mediterranean countries.
On May 1, Esland, along with 9 other countries, joined the EU, whose membership reached 25.
In November, Secretary of Defense Margus Hanson resigned from the post after classified documents were stolen from his home. The legislation clearly states that these types of documents must not be brought out of government offices. That the government offices also did not offer great security proved when documents in the same case disappeared from the Foreign Ministry. Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland was then dismissed.
In March 2005, Justice Ken-Marti Vaher lost a vote of confidence in Parliament on the basis of a number of questions for the anti-corruption program. As a result of the lost vote, Prime Minister Parts resigned. In April, Andrus Ansip from the right-wing Reform Party was appointed as new Prime Minister.
On May 9, 2005, the Estonian Parliament ratified the EU’s new constitution. It didn’t matter. A few weeks later it was voted down by referendums in France and the Netherlands. A few weeks later, Estonia voluntarily abandoned the target of being admitted to the Eurozone in 2007. The country was above the allowed maximum inflation level. Instead, a new plan was drawn up, aiming for inclusion in the zone in 2008.
The 2006 presidential election was won by Toomas Hendrik Ilves of the Social Democracy. The elections took place in parliament, where after the first round of elections he had no counter-candidates. Ilves was born in exile, grew up in the United States and worked in the 1980’s as a journalist on Radio Free Europe – the United States propaganda station targeting Eastern Europe.