OREANDA-NEWS  On 05 March was announced, that at the meeting with Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that the ensuring of the protection of national minorities and the promotion of their culture are priorities for the government.

According to the Prime Minister, the government has adopted two comprehensive integration programmes for the years 2000-2007 and 2008-2013 to achieve this priority. According to him, the number of persons of unspecified citizenship has also been decreasing on a constant basis. “Although the tempo has slowed down, the state has continuously been looking for new ways to speed it up,” said Ansip, according to whom the informing of the opportunities for applying for citizenship has become more individual and the informing of children and adolescents will mainly be focused on. Special attention is paid to decreasing the number of children with unspecified citizenship.

As of February 2007, the parents of children with unspecified citizenship are informed when registering the birth of their child that they can apply for Estonian citizenship for their child in simplified order. At the present moment, the Citizenship and Migration Board has contacted all 275 parents who have had a child with unspecified citizenship. And the feedback has been very positive.

According to the Prime Minister, the application for citizenship is a very important decision for which a person must show some initiative.

Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, met with Minister of Justice Rein Lang before visiting Stenbock House. Today, meetings will also be held with the Minister of Population Affairs Urve Palo and Members of the Riigikogu Paul-Eerik Rummo and Mart Nutt. Tomorrow, the High Commissioner will depart to East-Viru County, where he will meet with the county governor Riho Breivel and mayor of Narva, Tarmo Tammiste. The Commissioner will also visit the Narva College of the University of Tartu. On Wednesday, the High Commissioner will meet with the Minister of Education and Research Tхnis Lukas and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet, with whom a joint press conference will also be given.