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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. In 1999, there were altogether 6 Roundtable meetings. June 3, 1999 July 10, 1999 September 3,1999 November 12, 1999 December 20,1999 (meeting of the legislation working-group) January 21, 2000, (meeting of the legislation working-group) 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: 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: Hagi ein January 24, 2000
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