IPN interview with the ex-President of the Republic of Estonia Arnold Ruutel: Currently, Estonia has the largest GDP per capita among the former Soviet republics. The World Bank described the country’s economy as ‘economy with a high income’, while the International Monetary Fund considers that Estonia has ‘an advanced economy’. The country is placed at the top of world rankings by the freedom of the media, economic freedom, political freedom and education. The average salary in Estonia is over €800, while the average pension – €350. Estonia’s President in 2001-2006 Arnold Ruutel believes that Estonian society has yet a lot to do to achieve the living standards of the developed states, but what the country accomplished until now was possible due to the support offered by the European Union.
---
- Your visit to Chisinau comes one month after the visit paid by the current President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Is it an axiom that the visits of such a level and such regularity show a special interest in the bilateral relations and, possibly, not only in the bilateral ones? What does this interest reside in?
- Our countries are both in Europe. Our peoples had a common history at a certain stage. This is the cause why we show interest in each other. Besides, Estonia now has a rather rich experience of accession to the EU. Given that you plan to joint the EU, as far as I know, I think that in the future we will also have many things in common for discussing, informing and helping each other. That’s why we are now in Moldova – to meet with the people and to discuss with them so as to extend Estonia’s cooperation with Moldova.
- Moldova’s path to Europe goes through the Vilnius Summit. However, the initialing of the Association Agreement with the EU and its subsequent signing are only the first steps towards the accession to the EU. Will Moldova succeed and how much time will it need?
- It is important that the EU, for its part, including Estonia, look at this thing very positively so that both of the sides are interested in this process. This means that after the initialing of the agreement additional preconditions will be created for solving a number of problems so that Moldova can accelerate its development. I’ m positive about Moldova’s European integration prospects.
- Will Estonia’s experience of accession to the EU be useful to Moldova?
- I think you can use Estonia’s experience in a lot of areas. As a matter of fact, our possibilities at the initial stage were different than yours because we, at practical level, prepared for accession to the EU long before proclaiming our course officially. In November 1988, we amended our Constitution and declared the supremacy of the Estonian laws over the Soviet ones. This way we laid the basis for adjusting our legal framework to the European one. When we openly expressed our wish to join the EU and Brussels accepted, we already had over 1,500 documents that were relatively compatible with the European legislation. We managed to make certain amendments and supplements in a very short period of time. At that time, I held the post of president of the Supreme Soviet and invited to cooperation not only representatives of political forces, but also the most prominent scientists and jurists. Our countries signed an agreement, according to which we can help Moldova to accelerate this process. In fact, everything depends on the way you will be able to professionally benefit from our experience too so as to adjust your legal framework to the European one.
- Estonia prepared for accession to the EU and joined it when you were already head of state. What aspects of this process you remember best as being the most difficult and, respectively, the simplest?
- Surely there were problems, including certain fears on behalf of one part of the population. But these fears weren’t confirmed. Nothing bad happened and we can now speak only abut positive results following the joining of the EU. Before accession, the people had a cautious opinion. Only 35% supported this course. But when we explained this thing to the people and held a referendum half a year before the accession, our European integration course was supported by 67% of the people. Currently, over 70% of the people positively perceive the country’s participation in the EU. That’s why it is completely real to secure the people’s support after discussing the fears, problems and benefits with them.
- According to international sources, Estonia achieved the largest GDP per capita among the former Soviet republics. The World Bank described the country’s economy as ‘economy with a high income’, while the International Monetary Fund considers that Estonia has ‘an advanced economy’. The UN classified Estonia as ‘developed country’ with a very high Human Development Index. The country is placed at the top of world rankings by the freedom of the media, economic freedom, political freedom and education. To what extend did the membership of the EU contribute to these accomplishments, or they could be achieved outside the EU too?
- These indexes are surely positive if we compare them with other regions of the world, but we are not yet satisfied. We must yet solve a number of problems in order to improve things and to reform our society further. Speaking about the accomplishments, I think they were possible only within the EU because the development of every country depends principally on the financial resources, which influence the economic development, education, science, etc. This support is offered to Estonia by the EU. During the almost 10 years, we benefited from about €0.7 billion a year. This is a rather large sum that was used to stimulate our development after half a century of stagnation. In other words, the EU helped us a lot and the assistance continues to increase. I think we must be grateful namely to the EU. We can also speak about economic development indicators. Some of them are close to the world indicators. Let’s look at agriculture, as I was once rector of the Agricultural Academy and the state of affairs in this sector is very close to me. In the Soviet period, the average quantity of milk obtained during a year in Estonia from a cow was 3,500 liters. Now this figure stands at almost 9,000 liters. The large farms with 1,000-1,500 cows obtain even by 10,000 – 12,000 liters from a cow. These indicators are among the top ten world indicators in this field.
- What we discussed until now referred to the country, the status of the Republic of Estonia. But what did an ordinary Estonian gain from being in the EU for almost 10 years? In particular, do all the Estonians find a job at home or have to go to work aboard, as many Moldovans? What average salary and average pension have the European Estonians?
- Estonia has a population of 1.3 million. Less than 10% of them work in agriculture. From 2004, when we joined the EU, until 2013, agriculture has benefited from €1.5 billion. In the period, we received from different EU funds over €900 million for the needs of students and education in general, for science and development of innovations. We can look at these large amounts of money through the angle of the development of the sectors of the economy, but also through the angle of the ordinary people who work in these sectors. It is about work conditions and salaries. By the way, the average salary in Estonia is over €800, while the average pension – €350.
- During two years, our News Agency has held a series of public debates centering on the political culture of Moldovan society. We do it because the general level of political culture is yet very low and this affects the current situation and the political prospects of the country as well as the living standards. They say the political culture in your country is advanced and stable. How did you manage to achieve this and what should we do to succeed?
- Our society managed to solve the most acute political problems related to the gaining of independence and the subsequent, civilized development, with no victims. This style is typical for the political relations and for the contacts between political parties. We can discuss a lot in a contradictory way, but we adopt the decisions on a really human basis. This is one of the main conditions of the establishment of our political environment.
- After gaining independence, Estonia became actively involved in different multilateral international cooperation formats, including at the level of the Baltic States and of the Nordic States. They say that this behavior greatly ensured an advanced modernization pace at internal level and admission to the European institutions at foreign level. Until recently, Moldova had rather bad relations with its neighbor or, maybe, especially with its neighbors. Can things be remedied? Where should Moldova expect international solidarity from on its path to modernization and Europeanization?
- When we regained our independence, we created together with our neighbors the Baltic Council within which we cooperated very intensely. In concert with the Lithuanians and Latvians, we adopted 96 decisions and statements addressed to all the heads of state of the world. We also cooperated closely with the Nordic Countries with which we extended significantly not only the political, but also the economic relations. At first, our trade was oriented to the Soviet Union and afterward to Russia, but we very quickly reoriented it to the European countries. As regards Russia and other post-Soviet republics, our trade with them represents slightly over 10%. Serious changes took place in this area and the EU helped us a lot in the development of our economy, first of all to ensure equality as the European market recognizes only goods of a high quality. Moldova can follow the same path, being assisted by the EU. Moldova can count on the EU.
- The last Russian military troops left Estonia in August 1994, three years after obtaining independence. How did you country manage to do this? Moldova didn’t succeed in over 22 years. What is the difference?
- The situation is different and the countries are different too. In Estonia there were forces that wanted to tear away a part of Estonia at the beginning of the 1990s and to found an autonomous unit there. Thank God they didn’t manage to. This is in what the greatest difference between Estonia and Moldova resides. There were people who didn’t accept the idea of having an independent Estonian state. They weren’t confident enough and were also nostalgic for the Soviet Union. They were unable to make their minds up. Now many of them have Estonian nationality, which means that they recognize the Estonian state and benefit from all the privileges offered by Estonia and the European Union.
Valeriu Vasilică, IPN
