TALLINN - More than a third of the nation's parliament has signed off on a document calling for the resignation of the environment minister following a slew of criticism he received for placing political and private interests ahead of those of the state.
On June 11, 34 members of the Green Party, the Central Party and the People's Union handed an application to the speaker of parliament requesting the expulsion of Environment Minister Jaanus Tamkivi from his post.
"The reason is that in his yearly work Tamkivi has clearly positioned himself to stand for private companies' interests and doesn't want to do his main task, which is to protect public interests and to protect the environment," said Valdur Lahtvee, chairman of the Green Party and a driving force behind the application.
Tamkivi, meanwhile, has claimed that the move to depose him from office is simply political maneuvering by the opposition.
"Generally it is political fight. It's obvious that the actions of the coalitions don't appeal to the opposition and the opposition parties are trying to show themselves. I guess it is simply that [the application] is more likely a political fight," Tamkivi told The Baltic Times.
Lahtvee, however, claims that the minister has hindered the ministry's work by promoting his personal politics. He said, for example, that the minister has put incompetent people in high positions in the Forest Management Center simply because they were loyal to the party.
"I haven't put any people to department managers. Some time ago the nature protection department manager was changed, but that person does not have any political preference. I don't understand that, it is purely gobbling," said Tamkivi.
Moreover, Lahtvee claims that the minister himself has failed to push forward a series of important governemnt programs. He drew attention to the minsiter's inability to create a program to exploit some of the country's vast oil shale reserves.
"How will the most important energy resource for Estonia be used? [Under the previous minister] it was discussed thoroughly and interests were truly controversial between environment protection and oil shale producers. There was two years of debate, finally an action plan was agreed on and it's goals and exerting them," the Greens leader said.
"As soon as Minister Tamkivi signed, however, he gave an order to change these commonly agreed upon documents so that measures that were aimed at reducing negative environmental effects were left out," he said.
He said there were now no measures to improve the technologies used by oil shale companies to create a better, purer and more effective product. Although these goals are still formulated, there are now no measures for their implementation.
"Lahtvee thinks that amendments that were made aren't correct. It is his personal opinion," Tamkivi said, adding that all he has done is fix and spruce up the program a little bit. He noted that the main goals are still written there.
Tamviki said his decisions were all in line with overall government priorities and there was no way to improve on the plan.
"A minister is making decisions according to coalition agreement and the action program of Estonian Republic. There's no way that minister's are making free program, it doesn't happen in any democratic country," said Tamkivi.
