President Lennart Meri received Arne Friis Petersen, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark, in Kadriorg this morning.

The enlargement of the European Union was the main issue of the meeting. The Permanent Secretary of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had participated on the Vienna Summit, gave a summary of the themes discussed there and confirmed the continuation of Denmark's strong support to Estonia's perspective membership in the EU. According to Petersen, the breakthrough for the Slovak Republic and Latvia would probably come during the Finnish presidency of the EU, as the period of German presidency will be mostly dedicated to the problems of the internal reforms of the EU.

President Meri, Permanent Secretary Petersen and the Danish Ambassador to Estonia Svend Roed Nielsen also spoke of co-operation in the field of nuclear energy and safety of the nuclear energy plants. President Meri was worried about the nuclear energy plants of Sosnovy Bor and Ignalina. As the Danes pointed out, the technical condition of the Ignalina plant is one of the obstructions on Lithuania’s way to the EU.

Speaking of the importance of the Baltic Sea energy circle, President Meri mentioned that on his meeting with the Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis and the Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus in Riga on November 18 this year, it was planned to arrange a special meeting for the discussion of the energy circle issues. The representatives of Denmark offered their assistance in finding the ways of switching all the Baltic countries into the energy circle. As the energy circle first and foremost means the pipeline transport of gas, it is important, according to Ambassador Nielsen, to cover the intermediate stage of transforming gas into electric energy. For this, new plants are necessary, and support for building them can be sought from the structural funds of the EU. The representatives of Denmark also offered their assistance.

The Danes also spoke with appreciation of the Amendment Act granting citizenship to the children of parents without citizenship passed by the Riigikogu, and emphasised the need to allocate two per cent of the GNP to defence expenditure in the future.

The theme of history was also discussed. Denmark is prepared to open to Estonia the archives where documents from the pre-World War II period are preserved.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, December 16, 1998

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