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The President of the Republic met with representatives of the Estonian Union of National Minorities08.12.2004
 President Arnold Rüütel today at Kadriorg received a delegation of the Estonian Union of National Minorities (EUNM) representatives headed by the president of the Union Jaak Prozes. The meeting was attended by representatives of Jews, Hungarians, Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Ingerian-Finns, Ukrainians, Russians, Moldavians, Tchuvashes, Uzbeks, Belorussians, Azerbajanians and Eastern Estonians, who introduced to the Head of the State the activities of their national organisations. The issue of possibilities to improve the legislation on national minorities and the problems that the national minorities have to face developing their own ethnic culture were also discussed.
The representatives of the Union thanked the Estonian state for its support and expressed their readiness to facilitate, within the bounds of possibilities, to democratisation of the Estonian society and to its balanced development, but also creating a positive image of Estonia in the rest of the world.
The President of the Republic expressed his satisfaction over the fact that representatives of different nationalities have managed to live and work in cooperation, which could serve as an example for other countries. President Rüütel thanked the Estonian Union of National Minorities for its contribution and support and said that the multitude of diverse ethnic cultures is a wealth in today's Estonia.
The Estonian Union of National Minorities is a non-governmental non-profit organisation uniting 24 national organisations that represent 49 various organisations from all over Estonia. The Union was established on September 22, 1988 with the aim to give the national minorities living in Estonia an opportunity to support the national independence of Estonia. In cooperation with the EUNM the Presidential Roundtable of National Minorities was set up in 1993, which functions as a consultative body also today.
The EUNM Forum, held on November 30, 2004, adopted a declaration, which points out that the Estonian Union of National Minorities hopes that the accession of Estonia to the European Union would help to find more resources for preservation of native languages and culture of national minorities, and calls the state authorities to take steps towards better dissemination of information about the topic of national minorities in the European Union. The Estonian Union of National Minorities is concerned about the continuous interference of Russia into national policy of Estonia. The Estonian national minorities do not feel that their right are violated in Estonia. Russia has no authority to represent the Estonian national minorities. The Estonian Union of National Minorities calls all communities of national minorities in the Republic of Estonia and their organisations to cooperate constructively for the benefit of Estonia.
Public Relations Unit of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, December 8, 2004
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