Today is the turn of Estonia in our new Ovi magazine Euro Reporter section. Tunnel vision
The mayors of Tallinn and Helsinki want to launch a feasibility study into building an undersea rail tunnel between the two capitals. Edgar Savisaar met with Helsinki Lord Mayor Jussi Pajunen in Finland on June 19 and agreed to launch the feasibility study. The likelihood of the project is doubtful, since the tunnel would need to stretch over 80km. The longest undersea tunnel in the world is the English Channel Tunnel, which runs for over 50km.
The undertaking of such a task is estimated to cost around €2 billion and would be partly funded by the EU, but is the project economically feasible? In May this year the company that built and funded the Channel Tunnel project, and now runs the shuttle services has been in financial difficulties. Some of the attempts at solving the problems have included cutting the number of trains per hour, reducing staff and streamlining the business.
It does not seem possible that a Baltic Sea tunnel could turn a profit or ever regain its construction costs, especially considering that the ferries crossing the Sea of Helsinki are already facing their own financial difficulties after the lowering of tax on alcohol in Finland and offer particularly cheap tickets.
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Streamlining foreign workers
The process of bringing foreign workers to Estonia is to be streamlined under a plan to ease the country’s worker shortage. The quota of foreign workers will be doubled to about 1,300 and the bureaucratic paperwork slashed by November under an Economy Ministry proposal. Economy Minister Juhan Parts said the bureaucratic simplifications were an obvious solution to give companies faster access to skilled labour.
Parts has said that it was “unacceptable” that “good qualified brains” were having difficulty entering the Estonian labour market, but that didn't mean that Estonia would be opening their borders to low-skilled workers, especially while there are 380 million available workers within the European Union. However, employers seeking long-term permits for workers will have to commit to paying a salary of at least 1.24 times the average Estonian salary, which currently sits at 9,600 kroons.
The problems will begin once Estonians realise that foreign workers are earning 1.24 times the local wage and this is hardly going to promote good feelings. Estonia is not the only EU country facing this problem, with its neighbour Finland also in a similar position.
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A huge LEGO set
A historic London building has been dismantled, packed in crates and shipped to Tallinn for reassembly. The building is known as The Baltic Exchange, a grandiose marble hall that once served as the main centre for trade between Baltic Sea ports and England. It was badly damaged during the 1992 IRA bombings and was removed piece-by-piece from its central London location.
The €1.1 million purchase of the building was made by Estonian businessmen Heiti Haal and Eerik-Niiles Kross, who are now negotiating to find a suitable location for the building in central Tallinn. However impressive this all sounds, much of the building will actually have to be built from new, as only the expensive stone elements were preserved. It is like being a dozen Duplos bricks and then building the remainder with BIONICLE LEGO… well, sort of!
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