It was reported on Reuters that the Lithuanian government encouraged utility company Leituvos Dujos shareholders to seek arbitration against natural gas supplier Gazprom. Voting was held on Thursday to force Gazprom to reduce its prices. Lithuania currently pays some of the highest utility prices in Europe, much higher than paid by her nearest neighbours – Latvia and Estonia.
Gazprom is one of the world’s largest suppliers of natural gas and provides the gas needs of a quarter of Europe. The European Commission has been investigating the supply giant since 2012 for suspected the anti-completive practices of overcharging customers and blocking rival supply companies. The minister of energy stated that Gazprom’s supplying to Lietuvos Dujos at such inflated prices, higher than Latvia, Estonia and Germany were being charged, was harmful to Lithuania’s consumers, the economy and Leituvos Dujos as a company.
A previous case filed by the Lithuanian government against Gazprom before the international arbitration court in Stockholm, is demanding compensation of 5 billion Lithuanian litas ($2 billion) for previous pricing. The new arbitration initiative will hopefully speed up talks with Gazprom to finally achieve a discount. Gazprom stated that Leituvos Dujos agreed to pay prices based on a formula that is linked to oil pricing and that it would not change its pricing practices in Eastern Europe in spite of regulatory pressure. The current sale agreement is in place until the end of 2015. The Gazprom said in September it could reduce prices if Lithuania signed a “comprehensive agreement” and withdrew the existing claim from the Stockholm court. Lithuania plans to erect a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at end of 2014, and its top power utility Lietuvos Energija expects to start importing LNG in 2015.
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Euronics may be on the brink of losing their top position as Estonia’s main supplier to the domestic electronics market. Euronics, a well known chain of electronic stores belonging to Antista AS, stocks the usual modern family essentials such as; home electronics, home appliances, audio equipment, video equipment. VCRs, DVD-players, CD players, home theatre systems, camcorders, televisions, stereos, radios, tape recorders, voice recorders, digital cameras. Rumour has it that Dixons, the well known household electronics company, boasting some 642 shops across the UK and Ireland plus another 285 shops in Scandinavia are setting their sites on Estonia and the Baltic region. Dixons Retail owns Elkjøp, the largest electrical retailer in the Nordic countries owning some 264 stores. The CEO of Elkjøp Nordic, Ronny Blomseth is quoted as saying regarding Dixons “We have not yet made any decision about expanding into the Baltic countries. We are now looking at locations in different parts of Europe, but no decisions have yet been made,”
Morgan Stanley, in a recent report, stated that Dixons could no longer afford its large UK stores where huge rental prices conflicted with sustainable profit growth. In order to survive Morgan Stanley considered that Dixons would be better off closing their UK operations to concentrate more heavily on its Scandinavian businesses. It is argued that Estonian’s may not immediately have the buying power to merit the move for Dixons to the Baltics, but the taste and desire for home electronics is patently there otherwise there would not be so many electronics stores already peppering Estonian shopping districts.
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Estonian Telecommunication (Telecoms) is the most steady from all three Baltic States countries Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. This was found out by EPSI Baltic in 2011 when carrying out a national survey. This is great news for a country like Estonia especially with its unique size and with its gradual increase in economy over the year. Economists believe it will overtake Latvia’s growth.A different story exists between the Private Internet Users and Corporate Mobile Users. Estonia has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world.
Around the world Orange acquires Congo Chine Telecom how can Estonia compete with this?
EPSI Rating is an independent organisation that provides neutral performance assessments to a multitude of users across Europe.
The National Telecommunications act in the second period of Estonian independence arranged a Monopoly on international and local fixed line telephony to Eesti Telecom, Estonian Telecom.
Where does this take Estonia now it could be a Europe to World Leader in Telecoms.
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Among the twelve new EU member states, Latvia has ranked in the third place in terms of concluded agreements on the EU fund project implementation, as well as in terms of project implementers who have received the funding as of late September, according to the data presented at the recent EU states conference in Hungary.
The Finance Ministry’s Deputy State Secretary, Alexander Antonov on EU funds matters, says, “It is not surprising that we are in the top 3 of the best acquirers, because from the start of the EU funds period, Latvia has steadily kept leading positions among the top acquirers”.
Latvia has concluded agreements with the EU funded project implementers for ~ 2.5 billion lats or 80.5% of the total allocation until September 30, while nearly 1.2 billion lats or 37% of the total EU fund allocation for 2007 – 2013 period have been paid to project implementers. Assessing the acquisition in terms of the paid funding to project implementers; Estonia ranks in the first place, followed by Lithuania, with Latvia taking the third place. While, in terms of the concluded agreements, the first place is taken by Cyprus, the second – by Estonia, while the third place – by Latvia.
The EU budget revenues mainly consist of member states’ contributions or the EU’s own resources. The proposal by the European Commission (EC) stipulates introduction of new own resources in form of new taxes, namely, the implementation of the EU value added tax (VAT) and financial transactions tax.
Latvia has negative standpoint regarding these new taxes. Given the current financial and economic conditions and the additional tax burden already imposed on the country’s residents, Latvia cannot support the adoption of new taxes on the EU level, indicates the Finance Ministry.
]]>The original Russian built Ignalina nuclear power plant at Visaginas was shut down in 2009 in accordance with agreement made for Lithuania joining the European Union. Plans to replace the plant were dashed when South Korean power company, KEPCO dropped out of their proposed tender in 2010. The workforce that operated the Ignalina plant between 1983 and 2009 are still in place and the site already has environmental consent to build a new nuclear plant and existing major grid connections are already in place. The old plant powered most of the Baltic States region, the new plant is expected to have a capacity out put of 2,200 and 3,400 MW and be completed by 2020. “Before agreement can go ahead the proposals from the two bidders must be discussed with Lithuania’s regional partners Latvia, Estonia and Poland, as well as the European Commission,” stated Minister Sakmokas.
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All three Presidents of the Baltic states; Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had the opportunity to meet and hold individual discussions with US President Barack Obama in Warsaw, Poland at a dinner on Friday. As part of his European tour President Obama attended a working dinner in Poland with the leaders of Central and Eastern Europe.
High on the agenda for Lithuania’s President, Dalia Grybauskaitė was the issue of NATO. On Thursday she was quoted as saying, regarding her impending meeting with Mr Obama, “I will raise issues of urgent importance to Lithuania and other NATO border states. We’re seeking that NATO’s missile defence system, agreed upon last year in Lisbon, should cover all members of the alliance,”
Estonia’s President Toomas Hendric Ilves said of his meeting with the US president, “It is in the interests of both the democratic states of Europe and the United States of America that there are as much strong democratic economies and internationally responsible regions in the world as possible,”
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April 13 to 15 of 2011 sees the launch of Estonia promotion program, ‘Meet Estonia 2011’, to be held in Tallinn.
The event is organised by the Estonian Convention Bureau and the Estonian Tourist Board, which are focusing on hosting fifty professional event organizations from all over European.
The delegates will be invited to consider Estonia as a meeting and event destination and will be met by the relevant operators in the Estonian market.
Included in the program of events will be tours through Tallinn’s Old Town, an evening tour of Tallinn’s ‘haunt houses’, a traditional Estonian party and visits to conference centres and hotels.
There will also be the additional option after the 15th of taking further tours to Tartu, Estonia’s university town, and the sunny coastal city of Parnu.
This event is the second of its kind to be held in the country and will promote Estonia as Europe’s newest most cost effective and fun place to congregate
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