Estonian Foreign Minister Criticizes EU Commissioners

In an interview with the independent online news service EUobserver on 22 April, Kristiina Ojuland criticized the EU's policy toward Russia. She expressed concern about the trip that day by a delegation of European commissioners, including commission President Romano Prodi, to Moscow to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the extension of the EU-Russian Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) to the 10 new EU states. The Council of EU Foreign Ministers had initially clearly stated that the PCA should be extended automatically, but Russia refused to do so unless 14 issues, including the rights of Russian minorities in the Baltic states and trade concerns, were dealt with first. Among the Russian requests are that Estonia and Latvia simplify their naturalization procedures, grant citizenship to retired military personnel of the former USSR, continue to provide funding for secondary education in the Russian language, and give official status to the Russian language in regions with large Russian-speaking populations.