Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 24 October 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Experience of Estonia and Latvia in the EU: Discussion with Estonian and Latvian Ambassadors

2:35 pm

H. E. Mr. Mait Martinson:

Not really. It was 3%. However, it pertains to what one takes psychologically and I will say parenthetically that we live in a funny neighbourhood, where people look at comparable living standards in Finland and Sweden. They see people in Finland getting €3,000 per month, whereas the equivalent rate in Estonia might be €1,000 per month. This raises questions from the people on the street as to the reason it is so different. However, one has no time to explain that Sweden has not had wars for three centuries, etc., and that consequently, the basis is different.

On the last point regarding energy and interconnections, we are very glad that we now have had two interconnections built to Finland - the second one will be finished. As for green energy, it mostly is wind energy. Unless I am mistaken, we are at the top of the European Union in adopting green energy policies and right now, there is even talk in some other member states that perhaps we have over-invested in green policies but we will see. I might get the figure wrong but right now I think we are getting approximately 7% of our electricity needs in this way.

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