| |
 | Institutions | | |
President of the Republic's Roundtable of National Minorities Activity Report
June 1999 - January 2000
At the beginning of 1999, a certain crisis occurred in the work of the Roundtable. V. Pettai left the Roundtable to pursue his scientific career. Four Roundtable members announced their wish to suspend their activities as a Roundtable member, as they were dissatisfied with the style and accomplishments of the Roundtable work. In May, President of the Republic appointed Hagi Shein his new representative at the Roundtable. The first Roundtable meeting following the four-month pause took place on June 3, 1999. First, the Roundtable had to establish a working rhythm again, and to determine and delineate the objectives of its activities. A deeper insight into the problems, as well as the analysis of the first meetings indicated that a new era was dawning in national policy: the society had achieved a certain stability, which enables the systematic development of integration processes and improvement of the conceptual basis of national policy. Now, the Roundtable has to establish its position among the subjects of national policy. Also the necessary financial resources must be found.
At the end of the year, we have a clearer view of our role and prospects:
1.Due to close co-operation with the Bureau of the Minister of Population, the Roundtable has become an active subject in the information circle of the institutions dealing with minorities (the Minister of Population, the Minister of Culture, the MEIS, and the United Nations/Nordic Countries development programme, the Riigikogu). The Roundtable has access to information, documents, projects, and ideas concerning the policy of minorities and population, and the possibility to express its opinions on shaping the minorities policy. The Roundtable is an active agent in the preparation of the Government's integration programme for 2000-2007 (see scheme).
2.The Roundtable may and can act as a representative body of the national minorities in their relations with the state. This function should be considered especially important. The Roundtable meeting on November 12, where the project of the integration programme was discussed, was held with extended quorum as special consideration was given to this aspect of the Roundtable functions, and the representatives of several major cultural societies were present. I intend to turn to the President of the Republic with the proposal to extend the number of representatives of the minorities at the Roundtable.
3.The Roundtable's capacity to work with legislative and program documents should increase, so that the Roundtable could act as an equal partner in working out the national policies. For this, it is necessary to increase the proportion of experts at the Roundtable. On the meeting of the Roundtable representatives (Barabaner, Velman, Shein, Krimpe) with the Minister of Population in November, an agreement was reached to establish a Joint Commission for the analysis of the Cultural Autonomy Act and considering the need to argue the necessity and possibility to draft a new law on the minorities. This is one of the Roundtable's more important tasks in 2000.
4.Besides the representatives of minorities and the experts, we consider it important also for the representatives of political parties to participate in the work of the Roundtable. When the parties are informed of the problems of the minorities, there is more hope that the positions of the Roundtable will be heard in parliamentary action. So far, five parties are represented at the Roundtable. We have turned to the major political parties of Estonia with the request to reconsider and make their proposals concerning their representation at the Roundtable.
5.The Roundtable should increase its openness and improve the availability of information about the activities of the Roundtable. From November, the minutes and other documents of the Roundtable are available in the Internet in the Estonian language. Communication with the media should improve step by step, as the Russian-speaking press has a consistent interest in the problems of the minorities, whereas the interest of the Estonian press is occasional, if not minimal.
b>In 1999, there were altogether 6 Roundtable meetings.
Two meetings took place at the beginning of the year, when V. Pettai was still in office. From June 1999, 4 roundtable meetings have been held, as well as two meetings of the legislation working group. The representatives of the Russian community participate actively in the Roundtable work again. The meetings have had the following agendas:
June 3, 1999
1.President of the Republic introduces Hagi Shein
2.Meeting with Minister Katrin Saks
3.Discussion of the key issues of the further Roundtable activities and plans
July 10, 1999
1. Information on the events between the two meetings.
2. Introduction of Jana Krimpe, Assistant to he President's Representative.
4. Discussion of the activity strategies of the Roundtable. Identification of the most important problems facing the Roundtable.
4. Discussion of problems connected to the membership of the Roundtable and the representation of national minorities.
5. Discussion of problems related to the further tasks of the Roundtable.
6. Discussion of the Roundtable budgets for 1999 and 2000.
September 3,1999
1. The impact of the Cultural Autonomy of the National Minorities Act in the Estonian society.
2. Possibilities of co-operation with the Estonian language learning programme of the EU PHARE Programme.
3. Problems with the working premises of the national culture societies.
November 12, 1999
(For the first time there was an extended meeting, where representatives of several major cultural societies were present; also guests from foreign embassies were present again). 1. Discussion of the project "The integration of non-Estonians into the Estonian society 2000-2007", that is currently being drafted by the commission of experts of the Minister of Population.
2. The presentation by Tiia Kase, representative of the development programme of the UN/the Nordic Countries development programme on the development programme projects for supporting cultural societies of the national minorities.
3. Authorisation of Hagi Shein to draw up a letter to the Cultural Committee of the Riigikogu concerning the reduction of financial support to the cultural societies of the national minorities in the draft budget of the year 2000.
4. Formation of the Joint Commission of the Roundtable and the Bureau of the Minister of Education to work out the proposals for amending the Cultural Autonomy Act or initiating the work on the draft of the National Minorities Act.
5. Agenda and time of the next meeting.
December 20,1999 (meeting of the legislation working-group)
1. Work on the proposals for amending the Cultural Autonomy Act or initiating the work on the draft of the National Minorities Act.
January 21, 2000, (meeting of the legislation working-group)
1. Amendment proposals to the latest version of the Government programme "Integration of the non-Estonians to the Estonian society 2000-2007".
2. Further work with the issues of cultural autonomy and cultural self-government.
The next meeting of the Roundtable shall take place on February 11, 2000, and the principles and financial sources for supporting the cultural activities of the minorities will be discussed; the legislation working-group will continue on February 28.
Thus, the three main bearings of the Roundtable work were formulated in 1999; and these bearings will be important for us also in the year 2000:
1.To shape the Roundtable into a body representing the national minorities
2.To make the Roundtable an active subject in the national minorities policy of the state
3.To support actively the cultural and educational activities of the minorities
Proceeding from the above principles I will, in the foreseeable future, turn to the President of the Republic with a proposal to change and enlarge the membership of the Roundtable in order to pursue the above objectives and tasks with greater efficiency.
The working arrangements and financing problems of the Roundtable still require attention. The annual budget necessary for the regular and open activities of the Roundtable (open meetings + translation into 2 languages) is about 250 000 - 290 000 EEK, and we have so far only obtained 50% of this amount. The support from the state budget was reduced from 104,000 EEK in 1999 to 85,000 EEK in 2000. To this, we can add the means coming from the UN/Nordic Countries Development Programme, for which we are especially grateful. Yet it is obvious that we must obtain additional means for the activities of the Roundtable.
The principal objectives of the President of the Republic's Roundtable of National Minorities for the year 2000:
1. The Government programme "Integration of non-Estonians into the Estonian Society 2000-2007" shall be approved. The Roundtable shall participate in the realisation of the programme.
2. The Joint Commission of the Roundtable and the Bureau of the Minister of Education shall prepare the proposals for amending the Cultural Autonomy Act or preparing the draft of the National Minorities Act.
3. An extensive discussion of the educational issues of the minorities shall be conducted.
4. The system for allocating financial support to the cultural activities of national minorities shall be approved.
5. The Roundtable shall even more firmly assume the role of the representative body of national minorities.
Hagi Šein
Representative of the President of the Republic at the Roundtable of National Minorities
January 24, 2000
|
| |
|
vpk.ee
