Estonians still 'on course' to join EU


President confident of entry in 2003 but voices concern that members of the Unoin may not be ready for Estonia`s inclusion.

Estonians will on Sunday elect the government that is likely - provided the schedule for EU enlargement remains on a fast track - to lead the small Baltic nation into the European Union.

All the parties with a chance of getting enough votes to form a government favour entry into the EU as well as retaining Estonia`s currency board, which pegs the national currency, the kroon, to the D-Mark.

In fact, if there is any threat to Estonia`s fast-track bid for EU membership, it may come from the 15 existing member states, rather than from Tallinn.

Lennart Meri, president of Estonia, yesterday predicted his country would be ready to join the EU by January 1 2003.

But, in an interview with the Financial Times, he was less sure the EU would be ready to face this reality.

"Europe has a tendency of building a fence around itself," he said in Brussels, shortly before meeting Jacques Santer, the European Commission president.

The electoral campaign has been marred by intense sniping between an alliance of centre-right parties- which advocate further market liberalisation - and the Centre party, which is calling for a progressive income tax and farm subsidies.

The preferred target of centre-right attacks has been the leader of the Center party, Edgar Savisaar.

A canny populist, Mr Savisaar was one of the leaders of Estonia's drive for independence from the Soviet Union, won in 1991, and served as prime minister from 1990 to 1992.

However, his opponents contend that Mr Savisaar has authoritarian leanings. They cite a 1995 scandal in which Mr Savisaar, then interior minister, was forced to resign after it emerged the secret services were, on his behalf, taping his conversations with leading politicians.

In the election campaign, Mr Savisaar has appealed to those who feel they have not benefited from Estonia`s market reforms, namely pensioners, farmers and the naturalised ethnic Russians who account for one fifth of the electorate.

Mr Savisaar's Centre party now tops the opinion polls, with about 17 per cent of the vote. It could have a shot at forming a government, but more likely to emerge is the centre-right alliance of the Reform party, the Moderates and Pro Patria Union.

The Coalition party is struggling to cross the 5 per cent electoral threshold and at best can hope to play the role of king-maker.


By Matej Vipotnik in Tallinn and Peter Norman in Brussels

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