Estonia: United electoral bloc pushes bilingualism

[Lane]

It appears that the 'united electoral bloc' is an
alliance of Russian minority parties. The title
shouldn't imply that this entity represents the
majority of the Estonian electorate. -Lane

--- "Harold F. Schiffman"
<haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:

> >From the Baltic Times, 04.09.2005
> 
> 1. United electoral bloc pushes bilingualism
> 
> By TBT staff
> 
> According to the draft, the City of Tallinn must
> communicate with
> Russian-speakers in their native language as
> according to Article 51 of
> the Constitution. The electoral bloc is also
> applying for the preservation
> of Russian-medium secondary education after 2007.
> Project authors agree
> that some subjects should be taught in Estonian in
> Russian schools, as
> long as respective preparations are guaranteed and
> the board of trustees
> has given its consent.
> 
> Tallinn, for its part, must ensure professional
> Estonian teaching in
> Russian-medium schools. The draft consists of 15
> points, including a
> proposal to stop the privatization of municipal
> cultural institutions. The
> Linnahall Concert Hall, the Salme Cultural Center,
> the Botanical Garden
> and the Russian Cultural Center are quoted as
> examples.
> 
> The council consists of representatives from the
> Estonian United Peoples
> Party, the Russian Party in Estonia, the Left Party
> and several other
> public organizations. During their Aug. 2 meeting,
> the council decided to
> publish the draft for public discussion. The ticket
> of the electoral bloc
> should be drawn up by the middle of this month.
> 
> Estonian United Peoples Party deputy chairman
> Anatoli Yegorov told the
> Baltic News Service that ideally, the ticket could
> be composed of 123
> people. He said about 80 of them could be members of
> Estonian United
> Peoples Party and about 40 could come from the Left
> Party. Yegorov said
> that the Russian Party could be represented by
> members of the Lasnamae
> chapter.
> 
> 2. Estonian MEP fights for national press officer
> 
> By TBT staff
> 
> My mother tongue is the only official language of
> the European Union in
> which the European Parliament has stopped writing
> news and drawing up
> reviews of plenary sessions at the moment, Marianne
> Mikko said before a
> full house at the European Parliament plenary in
> Strasbourg on May 12. The
> Estonian press is only represented by one permanent
> correspondent in
> Brussels. Therefore, scarcity of information is
> doubly poor in the
> European Parliament and must be solved immediately,
> Mikko said.
> 
> http://www.baltictimes.com/hot1.php?art_id=13503
> 
> 


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