OREANDA-NEWS. May 05, 2008. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip received in Stenbock House Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, for whom it was his first visit to Estonia as a minister. The meeting mostly focussed on energy production and the related environmental protection issues, reported the Official website www.valitsus.ee.

The Prime Minister explained to the Finnish Foreign Minister the particularities of the Estonian energy production system: the link between electricity production and CO2 emissions, the isolation of the local energy market and the resulting energy security need for an exception from the energy and climate package of the European Union. “Consideration must be given to the specific features of Estonia in the European energy and climate regulations,” said Andrus Ansip.

The Head of the Government also spoke about the need to diversify Estonia’s energy portfolio and not only by increasing the share of renewable energy but also with nuclear energy. The latter implies Estonia’s continuing interest in participating in the nuclear projects of the region.

Alexander Stubb noted that at the time when Finland adopted the decision to establish the first nuclear reactors in the country, nuclear energy production had become relatively unpopular in Europe. “Looking back, the then unpopular decision proved justified, for which we must thank the previous Finnish governments,” said Stubb.

The construction of the Estlink2 submarine cable was also discussed at the meeting. Andrus Ansip said that supplementary links were needed in addition to the Estlink submarine cable, in order to integrate Estonia with the Nordic Countries. The cooperation between the Estonian and Finnish network companies in developing the Estlink2 project has been very good so far.

Further to that, the meeting discussed issues related to the finalisation of the European Union internal market for energy.