Estonia Marches from Old to New Union

TARTU, Estonia -- A smooth and well-known businessman in Estonia's second largest city, Tiit Veeber weighs his words carefully when it comes to difficult decisions.

That’s even more the case when a government cabinet minister is listening in and the topic is whether his country should vote on September 14 to join the European Union.

“In principal there is nothing Estonia should be afraid of in joining the EU,” said Veeber, as the Estonian Environmental Minister stood next to him at a party Veeber threw to celebrate his company’s 15 years in business. Then he talked about his biggest concern, one shared by many Estonians and the reason polls in this small country show 40 percent are still uncertain about joining the EU.

“My biggest fear is if this old Soviet style bureaucracy will take hold when we join the EU,” said Veeber.

Refusal to join another “Union” after more than four decades under Soviet rule is the argument Euroskeptics hope to win with when Estonia holds the referendum. The imprint communism made on this northernmost Baltic country is one the Estonians have hastily tried to rid themselves of since declaring independence in 1991.

But EU supporters are hoping they can convince the country to give Brussels a try. On August 1 the campaign to vote yes on the EU referendum kicks off with a bus tour sponsored by all the EU member states' embassies in Tallinn. With each member state taking over the costs for a day on the pro-EU tour, the interest in getting Estonians to embrace the new union is quite high. But will it be enough?

Wired to the hilt, ready for anything

Spurred on by an anything goes attitude following the fall of the Iron Curtain, Estonians elected a 31-year-old prime minister and a cabinet full of twentysomethings in the country's early years of independence. The group cleaned house and introduced radical economic reforms that sent the country of 1.4 million to double digit growth rates that have only recently subsided.

Every school is wired to the Internet, the capital of Tallinn draws millions of tourists each year thanks to a beautiful old town and the fertile green countryside is being farmed with relatively modern technology. So why cede control of areas like agriculture or economics to a foreign capital in Belgium when you’re taking care of things quite well on your own?

“There are so many stupidities (in Brussels) in things like bureaucracy, and agriculture,” said Piret Paluteder, 36, a teacher in Tartu. “That Brussels can decide how many wolves are allowed in Estonia’s forests is ridiculous.”

New chance, old fears

The fear of being steered from afar has underscored Estonia’s political and economic decisions since independence. For the past 800 years, Estonia has alternately been occupied by Danes, Swedes, Germans and Russians. There are few in the country’s older generation who don’t remember a relative being carted off to Gulags in Siberia after the Soviets took firm control in 1949.

For all their EU skittishness, though, joining the union seems the logical next step on a path that has taken the country determinedly westward since independence. In the run-up to last December's summit sealing EU accession, Estonia worked to tweak its economic and political systems to bring them in line with Brussels enlargement guidelines, and it alligned its defense policies with those of NATO when it became an official member in March 2003.

Nevertheless, poll numbers cited by the European Union in June put as much as 39 percent of the Estonians against an entry and slightly more remain uncertain which way they'll vote.

“It’s very difficult to find a topic on which 90 percent of Estonians agree,” said business journalist Anvar Samost. Still, Samost called the Euroskeptic movement “marginal.”

Polls, who needs polls?

Indeed, poll numbers haven’t proven too reliable in referendums in seven other countries scheduled to join the EU in May 2004. Figures showing significant skepticism in Poland ahead of a referendum in June had EU officials nervous. But at the end of the two-day vote, the pro-EU side claimed overwhelming victory, with 77 percent of people approving membership.

When push comes to shove, most Estonians expect their country to approve joining the current 15 EU members in the final voting phase in September.

Even the business man Veeber, who has debated the issue back and forth in his head, can't find a firm argument against the new markets, assets and partnerships to which his small energy company will have access. In fact, Veeber just signed a deal with a Finnish energy company seeking to get an early foothold in Estonia.

Perhaps the words that best define the country's past decade and its chances for the future were summed up by Veeber as the sun set on another 17-hour summer day: "We have nothing to lose."