Estonian Canadian Community Applauds Creation of Estonian Government Global Estonian Cooperation Committee

The Estonian Central Council in Canada (ECC/EKN), representing Canadians of Estonian heritage, joins the global Estonian community in thanking the government of Estonia for supporting and actively joining the initiative to create an Estonian government committee of global Estonian affairs and cooperation.

The initiative to create this committee was supported by all Estonian political parties at an Estonian Central Council in Canada organized election town hall before the recent Estonian parliamentary elections.

The Estonian Central Council in Canada adopted a resolution to advocate for the creation of the global estonian committee in the Fall of 2018, and has regularly met with various Estonian ministers and opposition party leaders to discuss the effort. ECC/EKN is thankful to all Estonian parliamentarians for their support, and in particular, to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Reinsalu for his leadership and Minister of Global Estonian affairs, Riina Solman, for adding the committee to her portfolio.

A newly created non-profit organization, “Global Estonians”, which consists of representatives from Estonian communities in Canada, Sweden, USA and the World Estonian Council, held its establishing meeting in Tallinn last week and met with senior government officials to discuss future cooperation, including the development of the globalestonian.com portal.

“We’re thankful to the Government of Estonia for committing to establish the government committee for global Estonian affairs and cooperation in the coming months,” said ECC/EKN National Executive committee member Reet Marten-Sehr adding, “We look forward to working with our international partners in common cause to develop a global Estonian identity.”

“Canadian Estonians can be proud of the leadership their community has taken on this initiative, as well as the many other initiatives our community leads including; EstDocs, Latitude 44, Estonian Music Week and the International Estonian Center,” commented ECC/EKN President, Marcus Kolga, “the global Estonian committee is a great tool and venue where we can share these experiences and grow our global Estonian community, through cooperation and better mutual understanding.”

In a statement, Estonian Minister Riina Solman said that “the global Estonian community is a great asset that has great potential.” She added, “I place great importance on the goal in the coalition agreement to create the Global Estonian program to activate  and bring together Estonians.”