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Vare: Estonia's success story will begin with the euro

25.11.2009, 12:00

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"The adoption of the euro is not Estonia's end goal, but the first chapter of its success story. It is only an intermediate stop," says Raivo Vare.

Vare who is former cabinet minister and current vice chairman of the Estonian Cooperation Assembly said in a TV breakfast show that he has faith in the euro and believes that Estonia will have a new currency in 2011.

Vare said that the problem with Estonians is that they seem to think that building a successful economy and society is like casting concrete where workers sit and wait until the material sets and hardens. "Instead of being pleased with what we have achieved we should set ourselves a new target after the euro, namely to build up a welfare society. We must always keep looking forward," said Vare, referring to the Finnish example.

Tallinn Technical University is hosting today a conference of Estonian opinion leaders fcusing on the issue of Estonia's long-term development priorities after the transition to the euro.

The Estonian Cooperation Assembly (EKK) is a cooperation network of non-governmental organisations interested in Estonia’s long-term development. EKK is founded by the President of the Republic of Estonia, over 60 organisations are currently involved in the charter process as the members of the network.

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This article is a typical example of Estonian bragging and self clorifcation and trying to tell everybody that Estonians much better and clever than their neighbours. It is much more acceptable to get cracking and institute reforms and making Estonia more efficient and competitive and then let the outside world judge what has been achieved.

~Peter Rosendal [26.11.2009, 11:43]

It is well known truth on Finland that some tax issues are not solved without strong consulting on the EU offices locally by citizens - like this old car importing taxes. Our system is not as flexible as on Estonia for sure. So, it is fair to say that goverment is playing its tax game against citizens at the expense of normal tax payer.

I do not think that the model of Finland is good solution for Estonia at the moment. Hitting high taxing on everything at the peak of recession gives you perfect opportunity to kill business totally. If higher taxes are needed they should be introduced during the better times than now.

By the way, it is expected that over half of regional city government go to belly up now on Finland next year since they have overestimated tax incomes and need to turn for the support funds of governments. This is very hard reality that is hitting Scandinavian style welfare system too. It remains to be seen whether government can found all these urgently needed support funds somewhere to keep it running normally for us.

~a_finn [25.11.2009, 23:55]

Finland is a total disaster example to use for EU and Euro policy.
It operates a totally illegal import policy practicing double taxation on goods which are in free EU circulation.
One can lose count of the number of times these anti competitive policies have been condemned and heavily fined in Brussels!

Finland is probably one of the least free market economies in the entire EU, and it continues to defy the EU commission blatantly and continuously.

Can anyone think why anyone should PAY 6000E on a 15 year old second hand car, just to import it, when that tax was already paid years before at source?

~esti=NO [25.11.2009, 16:23]

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