Opposition parties call for competition to find Estonia's ECA representative
Opposition parties think a public competition should be announced to find Estonia's next representative in the European Court of Auditors.
Leaders of the Center Party, Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) and Free Party groups in parliament on Friday sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas lashing him for the government's inability to reach agreement on who will be the next Estonian member of the European Court of Auditors, spokespeople for the Center Party group told BNS.
If the coalition fails to agree on a joint candidate, a public competition has to be announced to fill the position, the opposition parties said.
"In recent months the Estonian society has witnessed a political show around the nomination of Estonia's representative to the European Court of Auditors. The clear selection of the Reform Party and IRL for this position has been former prime minister and leading IRL politician Juhan Parts who however does not suit the Social Democrats. The bickering of the coalition partners makes a mockery of the government and leaves our closest foreign partners with a bad impression. The situation needs to be solved and in our opinion this can be done through announcing a public competition. This way the most competent person for this position can be found," chair of the Center Party group Kadri Simson said.
The head of the EKRE group, Martin Helme, said Parts' mistakes as economy minister clearly show his unsuitability for such a responsible position in Europe.
As far as the Free Party is concerned, Parts too could stand as a candidate in the competition, but the competition must be fair and nobody should be given an advantage in advance, chairman of the party Andres Herkel said.
The term of Kersti Kaljulaid, the current Estonian member of ECA, ends this spring.