Estonia and Netherlands

27.07.2009

The Netherlands recognised the Republic of Estonia on 5 March 1921. After the Soviet occupation the Netherlands re-recognised the Republic of Estonia on 2 September 1991. Diplomatic relations were restored on 21 September 1991.

From 20 September 2001 until the summer of 2005 the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Estonia was Joanna Van Vliet. On 27 September 2005 credentials were presented to the President of the Republic by Hans Glaubitz, who left Estonia in August of 2006. As of September of 2006 the Ambassador of the Netherlands in the Republic of Estonia is Henk Ary Christiaan van der Zwan, who presented his credentials to the president on 7 September 2006.

The Ambassadors of Estonia to the Netherlands were Clyde Kull (1992-1996) and Jüri Luik (1997-1999) residing in Brussels. From 1999-2002, Estonia was represented by Chargé d'Affaires Tõnis Idarand and Andrus Normet and from 2002-2006 by Ambassador Priit Pallum residing in The Hague. Since 30 August 2006, Ambassador Gita Kalmet represents Estonia in the Netherlands.

On 15 November 2006, the ceremonial opening of the new Estonian Embassy building took place with the participation of Urmas Paet in The Hague.

Estonia has three honorary consuls in the Netherlands -  Jan Brouwer in Rotterdam, Wibo Aris on the Netherlands Antilles in Willemstad and Nicolaas Anthony van de Griendt in Zwolle.

Visits

Agreements

The following agreements have been signed by the Republic of Estonia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands:

• Agreement on the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments (came into force 01.09.93);
• Agreement on Flight Connections (came into force 01.02.94);
• Agreement on Maritime Transport (came into force 01.02.94);
• Agreement between the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Field of Road Transport (came into force 01.12.94);
• Agreement on Mutual Administrative Assistance for the Proper Application of Customs Law and for the Prevention, Investigation and Combating of Customs Offences (came into force 01.06.96);
• Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital (came into force 08.11.98);
• Agreement on the Abolition of Mutual Visa Requirements (the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are also contracting parties of the agreement, came into force 01.07.99);
• Memorandum on the employment of the dependants of the employee appointed to another country for fulfilling official duties (came into force 19.11.02);
• Memorandum on mutual understanding regarding co-operation in the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases in accordance with Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol (came into force 09.09.03);
• Agreement on the privileges and immunities of the liaison officer of the Europol (came into force 01.10.03);
• Agreement on the export and payment of social insurance benefits (came into force 01.06.04).

Bilateral Co-operation

DUTCH AID AND DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION

The Netherlands has stopped giving traditional aid to Estonia in relation to Estonia acceding to the EU. Alongside Finland, Sweden and Denmark, the Netherlands have been one of the four main countries financing bilateral projects. While in the beginning of the 1990s Holland's aid to Estonia was directed towards supporting the development of democracy and a market economy, in 1998 the Netherlands began to support Estonia in its accession preparations for the EU. The co-operation between the two nations has included many joint projects in agriculture, law co-operation, harbour management, and environmental protection. Training sessions in a variety of different fields have also been carried out.

The most successful co-operation projects with the Netherlands were:

Economic Relations

The bilateral economic relations between Estonia and the Netherlands are as of 1 May 2004 regulated by the regulations of the EU's internal market.

TRADE

* Pre and post 1 May 2004 data are incomparable. After accession to the EU, the import is calculated on the basis of the sending country, earlier this was based on the country of origin.

In 2008, the Netherlands ranked as Estonia's 11th export partner and 8th import partner. In terms of total trade turnover (550 million euros), the Netherlands was in 8th place among Estonia's trade partners (with 2.8% of the total trade volume).

Estonian-Dutch trade 2000-2008 (in millions EUR):

Major export articles in 2008:

• Machinery and equipment - 22.3%
• Mineral products - 12,3%
• Metals and metal products - 11.5%
• Other manufactured articles - 10.2%
• Paper and paper products - 9.1%

Major import articles in 2008:

• Machinery and equipment - 22.8%
• Plant products - 12.6
• Chemical products - 12.2%
• Means of transport - 8.4%

INVESTMENTS

According to Bank of Estonia data, direct investments in Estonia from companies in the Netherlands totalled 792 million euros as of 31 December 2008, which equals 6.8% of all direct investments made in Estonia. Among other nations making direct investments in Estonia, the Netherlands ranked in 3rd place.

According to data from the Estonian Business Registry, as of 6 February 2009 there were 264 businesses with Dutch participation registered in Estonia. The companies with the most Dutch participation in Estonia are AS Magnum, AS Kunda Nordic Cement, AS Tallinna Vesi, and AS Reval Hotel Group.

TOURISM

The Dutch have become increasingly more interested in travelling to Estonia over the past few years. Frequently people are interested in opportunities for family vacations-the Dutch do not just focus on Tallinn, but generally want to travel by car through all of Estonia.

The number of tourists visiting Estonia from the Netherlands grew somewhat in 2008. Estonian accommodation establishments were used by 12 533 Dutch tourists in 2008 (a total of 27 662 overnight stays). The number of Dutch tourists that used accommodations grew by 2% on year and the number of overnight stays in Estonia grew by 3%. By number of tourists visiting Estonia and by number of overnight stays, the Netherlands has ranked 15th among visiting countries for the past few years. These numbers do not reflect the total number of tourists, since people coming for day trips and those using alternative accommodation opportunities are not counted. The number of people sent to the Netherlands by Estonian travel bureaus in 2008 was 6 529, or 1.2% of all tourists going through travel bureaus.

Defense co-operation

Defence-related co-operation between the Netherlands and Estonia has been fairly active. After Estonia's accession to NATO, co-operation has declined somewhat. In the fall of 2005 Estonia assigned a defence attaché to the Netherlands - Lieutenant Colonel Lauri Einre was Estonia's first defence attaché to the Netherlands (residing in London). Since August 2007 the Estonian defence attaché in the Netherlands has been Urmas Muld, who also resides in London. Since August 2003, the Dutch defence attaché to Estonia was Commander Bruno Gerrits, who resided in The Hague. The current defence attaché is Commander Hans de Brouwer, who also covers Estonia from The Hague.

On 8 October 1997 a memorandum of mutual understanding was concluded between the defence ministries of Estonia and the Netherlands that addressed bilateral contacts and defence-related co-operation, within which areas of co-operation were defined. On the initiative of the Netherlands the aforementioned memorandum was updated and the reworked memorandum was signed on 1 October 2008.

Estonia is greatly appreciative of the training co-operation that has developed, within the framework of which many different courses, trainings and visits have taken place each year. Since 1996, the Dutch Ministry of Defence has offered policy training courses to Estonian officers and officials dealing with defence at the International Staff Officers Orientation Courses, and also at the Belgian-Dutch mine disarming school EGUERIM. The Netherlands have supported the Baltic Defence College both through financial aid and by sending a lecturer to the school. In 2004 a classroom of the BALTDEFCOL was outfitted with very modern technology donated by the Netherlands. As a token of thanks, the college named the outfitted classroom after the legendary 17th-century Dutch seaman Admiral de Ruyter. During the past few years, the college's library has also received financial support. Guest lecturers from the Netherlands have been to the college. Through co-operation between BALTDEFCOL and the Netherlands, there are plans to create the Yearly Netherlands Prince Maurits War Studies Scholarship, the goal of which is to support research being done at the BALTDEFCOL while also including researchers from outside the college.

The co-operation between the navies of Estonia and the Netherlands has been quite active. The “Admiral Pitka” participated in the NATO counter-mine squadron, during which there was close co-operation with the Dutch. For the duration of the mission, the Dutch navy outfitted the ship with its crypto- and communication technology, which was necessary to ensure the “Admiral Pitka's” interoperability with NATO (the technology was given to the “Admiral Pitka” to use for five years). The Netherlands also participated in the counter-mine operation “Open Spirit”.

The Netherlands offered the Baltic states air policing from the beginning of April 2005 until the end of June. The Netherlands would like to find other solutions to the current rotating Baltic air policing arrangement. Estonia has procured and continues to procure various powered technology from the Netherlands. For example, we have purchased utility vehicles, medical vehicles, and trailer cargo beds. The Netherlands, as an active NATO member, also feels that participation in the Afghanistan mission is very important. Dutch units support the ISAF staff in building up Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan (about 1 700 soldiers).

Culture

On 26 February 2009 the embassy celebrated the 91st anniversary of the Republic of Estonia with a big jazz concert in the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague. Villu Veski and the Tallinn Jazz Quartet were invited to perform, and the concert was very well received by the public. At the beginning of February, organist Andres Uibo and his violinist daughter Mari-Liis Uibo gave a concert in the Amsterdam concert hall Orgelpark. According to an agreement with the Estonian National Museum in 2009, the exhibit of Estonian mittens is scheduled until the end of the year (December).

Architecture

Art

The Dutch Embassy in Tallinn has supported the organisation of many art exhibits in Estonia. The comprehensive Dutch art exhibit “Low Sky, Wide Horizon. Dutch Art in Estonia” took place in spring of 2005. The exhibit, which began in the Mikkeli Museum, continued in various forms all over town. Therefore it was possible to see lunette paintings in the style of Rembrandt (and Rubens) in the Town Hall, extremely rare Flemish rugs in the Tallinn City Museum, medieval altars from the Netherlands in Niguliste Church, and Renaissance-style grave monuments created by A. Passer for military leader Pontius de la Gardie and his wife in the Dome Church.

Music

A feeling of solemnity was added to the opening of Estonian art exhibition in June 2007 in Northern-Netherland in De Wijk by the performance of Arvo Pärt's compositions “Our Father” and “Mirror in a Mirror”. The music was performed by Orion Ensemble (piano, cello, violin) conducted by ensemble leader Leonard Leutscher who also made an inspiring introduction to the works of A.Pärt.

In June 2007 a concert dedicated to the choral music of the Baltic Sea Region took place at Zutphen in Northern-Netherlands. The program presented by Zutphen's vocal ensemble "Noordelicht" consisted mainly of Estonian choral music (C. Kreek, A.Pärt, U.Sisask). Organ was played by an Estonian organist Toomas Trass.

On 21 March 2005, conductor Neeme Järvi signed a four-year co-operation contract with the over 100-year-old Hague symphony orchestra Residentie Orkester, which in 2008 he extended until 2011. On 15 June 2007 a gala concert for the 70th birthday of Neeme Järvi took place in the Residentie Orkester in The Hague; Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves also participated.

Literature

In June 2007 a stipend was allocated from the literature foundation of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for the publisher Prometheus to publish a reprint of J. Kross's novel “Professor Martens' Departure” in Dutch. On 11 September 2008 the embassy organised an Estonian afternoon in Groningen in the northern part of the Netherlands, in co-operation with the Finno-Ugric department of Groningen University. About 70 people participated-from university, cultural and business circles. The schedule for the afternoon included the Estonian Institute's photo exhibit EV 90, the presentation of the Dutch translation of Jaan Kross's novel “Treading Air”, and the screening of J. Tusty's documentary film “The Singing Revolution”. The audience showed great interest and gave warm feedback. The Estonian Institute's exhibit on the history of the Republic of Estonia remained open for viewing in Groningen until the end of October.

On 13 November 2008 Estonian Honorary Consul in Rotterdam Jan Brouwer presented Onno Bus and John de Jonge's book “Dutch-Estonian Relations between the Two World Wars 1918-1940”.

Film

In March 2008 an Estonian language day was held in the Estonian Embassy in the Netherlands, which included a screening of H. Merits's film “Dear Paul” (“Kallis Paul”). In 2007 relations were established with the Filmhuis in The Hague so that Estonian films could be shown in the Netherlands.

Education-related co-operation

In 2007 an Estonian School was registered in the Netherlands with the financial support of the Estonian Foreign Ministry. There are 39 children that participate in the instruction that takes place one Sunday a month. In addition, Estonian language classes take place for others who are interested in learning. On an academic level, it is possible to study Estonian at Groningen University.

In 2008 the planned reciprocal visits between the graduating classes of Saaremaa High School and Limburg's Groenwald School took place (the Dutch students visited Saaremaa in 2008; the project began in the fall of 2006).

In November 2008 a representative of the embassy participated in the annual meeting of diplomats and university students organised by Leiden University called “Japanese Tables Evening”, which has become something of a tradition.

In December 2008 the Gasunie student exchange in Groningen organised a series of events introducing the countries along the Baltic Sea. On 4 December a day on Estonia was organised in co-operation with the embassy, within the framework of which the film “The Singing Revolution” was shown and Prof. Cornelius Hasselblatt from the university's Finno-Ugric department spoke about the Estonian language and culture. In the foyer of the Gasunie was an exhibit of Urmo Raus's paintings.

Until Estonia's accession to the EU, training opportunities for civil servants and diplomats at Clingedael Institute were highly valued. We see room for development in student exchange and in increasing contacts between universities.