Alcohol policies differ greatly by states. Among other things, the AVMSD sets minimum standards for television advertising, although Member States are given the possibility to apply stricter rules, as television is generally clearly confined to the territory of one state.
Despite Brexit, we are trying to move forward and keep working on other initiatives that would help European companies to expand their businesses. In June, I organised a breakfast debate with the European Internet Forum to discuss taxation in the digital economy.
There is a long history of schooling in Estonia, education is highly valued. As an IT-country, Estonia is working on better integration of IT into curricula. Our challenges are related to demographic changes, changes in school network and making teaching a more attractive profession.
Political leaders from across Europe have great things to say about Estonia’s leadership on digital technology. They applaud our e-voting and e-tax systems. They praise our widespread access to high-speed Internet. Estonia’s embrace of new technology is a model for Europe.
The European Union has done a fine job creating opportunities for its citizens and their goods and services. However, trade has become more digitalised. The online environment offers more and more opportunities. In most cases, it saves time compared doing it in the real world.
Estonia leads the rankings of women percentage in party memberships with 54%. This means that women form the majority of the party memberships, but they are not influential enough to have an effect on parties’ policies, electoral lists formation and at the end also on election outcomes.
European ideal is not – to my mind – “being the first“ at any costs. Europe does not need to conquer anybody – these times are over and the fundamentally colonialist subconscious idea of Lisbon Strategy has faded into our Medieval past.
Through economic and financial convergence, European business culture and practice become part of our everyday lives quickly and naturally. If this had not taken place, the corrupt bureaucracy and way of life still prevailing in our vicinity would probably dominate here as well.
In the second half of the 1990s and the first years of this millennium, the secure information exchange system “X-TEE” developed in Estonia and an ID card enabling identification provided us with the possibility to offer Estonian undertakings e-services unique to the whole world: establishing companies online, submitting reports, tax returns and entry applications with legal meaning through online information systems.
Seminar and a book launch organised by the Academy of Liberalism with the support of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and Estonian Reform Party.
