President Lennart Meri today offered lunch at Kadriorg to Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, to Günther Verheugen, the Commissioner for Enlargement, and to other top officials of the European Union currently visiting Estonia.

On the meeting, the recent European Union summit in Gothenburg was discussed, as well as the attitude of the Estonians towards EU enlargement. President Meri spoke of his meetings with the victims of the violence of foreign powers, and of the need to learn from the mistakes made sixty years ago, when Estonia considered herself successful and thought that she could manage by herself. The President expressed the opinion that in Estonia, the support to accession to the European Union and NATO is actually stronger than reflected by the press. As Romano Prodi said, President Meri is very good at explaining the reasons for acceding to the European Union to the Estonians.

Also the foreign political situation, also in Ukraine and in Russia, was discussed. Both parties agreed that Ukraine must receive every support in her aspirations towards Europe.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, June 18, 2001

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