No. 2

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TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE RIIGIKOGU. Monday, 28 August 2000

31 October 2000

Politics

RiTo No. 2, 2000

  • Mihkel Pärnoja

    Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of Estonia, Mõõdukad

On 28 August, the discussion of the issue of national importance continued that had been suspended after Prime Minister Mart Laar had made his speech and answered questions.

The Minister of Economic Affairs Mihkel Pärnoja focused in his co-presentation, discussing the transfer of a minority interest of Narva Power Plants, on the main conditions of the contract that had been signed three days ago, on 25 August, by Narva Power Plants, Estonian Energy and NRG. The Minister notes that the agreement of the main conditions of the contract shows how the parties intend to continue with the preparation of the contracts and eventually hand over a minority interest to the NRG. The contracts that accompany the agreement on the main conditions of the contracts are: a contract for the subscription of the shares, a shareholders agreement of Narva Power Plants, a surety contract with the surety of the NRG, and a contract for the purchase and sale of thermal energy, and a supplement that was signed separately and which sets forth certain amendments to some main conditions and procedures of the contracts, which serve as a basis for future steps.

The Minister stresses that the media has given unprecedented extensive attention to the different issues of the contract and presented opinions of various interest groups in a very late stage of negotiations. He notes that these are business negotiations and not all information is public – this was stipulated in the binding supplements to the government protocol decisions of 1998 establishing the main conditions of negotiations. However, an important aspect is that on the basis of this government decision, the Government of the Republic did not wish to guarantee the deal in any way and therefore the government decided to leave the resources that would have been needed to guarantee the deal, for fulfilling other functions of the state.

Full article in Estonian


Mihkel Pärnoja, born 1946, chemist, University of Tartu 1977, candidate’s degree in chemistry Moscow State University 1982. Work: 1977-92 University of Tartu, Faculty of Chemistry, assistant, lecturer; 1992-99 member of the VII and VIII Riigikogu, 1992-99 member of the Board of the Estonian Privatisation Agency, 1998-99 member of the Board of the Bank of Estonia, 1999 chairman of the Council of the Estonian Privatisation Agency, March 1999- Minister of Economic Affairs. Affiliation: People’s Party – Moderates, 1996- chairman of the council, chairman of the Board of the Assembly of Alumni of the University of Tartu 1997-, member of the Academic Chamical Society 1990-.

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