Estonian view of EU Constitutional Treaty

Henrik Hololei, representative of the Estonian government in the Convention for the Future of Europe, said that Estonia aims to raise only a couple of important points at the intergovernmental conference. He said Estonia wants a voting commissioner's seat reserved for all countries. Besides, Estonia wants the minimum number of European Parliament members from one country to be at least five, not four as suggested in the present draft. "Voting by consensus in sensitive issues such as taxation, including tax fraud and tax evasion, must certainly be kept," Hololei added. He said it was also important to rule out such military cooperation in the European Union where a small number of countries would be going ahead in a sphere where progress could be achieved in cooperation between all EU countries. Hololei said adoption of the Constitutional Treaty would not be followed by distribution of seats in the EU, but Estonia would be happy to see the former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponenn elected to a leading EU post. "Finland has always been a very important and close partner for us and Finland's EU policy certainly serves as an example not just to Estonia but also to other future member countries," he said. "We would be very glad if a country so close to us such as Finland would be represented high in the EU hierarchy.