Foreign Minister Urmas Paet: During Denmark's European Union Presidency, Estonia's Main Concern is Resolving Issues in Euro Area

02.01.2012

No. 1-E

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that for the next half a year during Denmark's European Union presidency, Estonia's main concern is resolving issues in the euro area. "Estonia awaits the conclusion of an intergovernmental agreement aimed towards strengthening the euro area by March at the latest," said Paet. "As the EU presidency country, Denmark has assumed the role of the link between euro zone and non-euro zone countries in order to strengthen the financial situation of the European Union," he noted.

Paet stated that in negotiations for the European Union's next financial perspective Estonia supports greater conditionality. "Estonia feels it is important to move forward with the Rail Baltic project, allocate sufficient funds for the development of rural life, and making agricultural supports more equal," said Paet. "Estonia does not, however, support the ceiling of 2.5% for the Cohesion Policy budget," he added. "I mentioned these concerns during a recent discussion with the Danish minister of European affairs, and my Danish colleague promised to take them seriously."

Paet said that Estonia supports giving European Union candidate country status to Serbia and starting accession negotiations with Montenegro during Denmark's presidency. He added that it is important for the accession process with Turkey to continue and that hopefully negotiations with Macedonia would be opened in the near future. "We also support opening all chapters of negotiations with Iceland," said Paet. "European Union Eastern Partnership is also a priority for Estonia," he added.

According to Paet, another topic that is important to Estonia during Denmark's presidency is the development of the European internal market, including the digital internal market.

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