Eesti in brief - 2004-04-22

Parliament will likely approve a new packaging law that will introduce a deposit on returnable glass and plastic bottles and cans from 2005.

Under the bill, stores will be obliged to accept packaging returns, which will require investments from shop owners. In the present system, beverage bottles and cans are returned to poorly managed and sometimes unhygienic collection points, whose main clientele are homeless people who make a living by collecting gathering. As a result of the new law, the price of packaged beverages will likely increase by up to 20 percent.

Estonia landed in 26th place in a recent global rating of market readiness for Internet-based business opportunities based on a survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Denmark and the U.K. led the list. Latvia came in 34, Lithuania 38 and Russia 48. It was the first time the rating, first published in 2000, listed the Baltic states and Slovenia.

The four regional chiefs of the country's police department will each create their own antiriot units that will be able to cope with mass uprisings. The police department stated that such a measure was necessary taking into account the country's new membership in the EU and NATO, which increases the possibility that rioting might take place during high-level international meetings in Estonia. By the end of 2004 every police chief will have trained 25 people who will then become the core of their respective region's unit. The police plan to have 300 officers with antiriot training in three years.