Oviir, Savisaar-Toomast Will Not Give Up EP Seats
MEPs Siiri Oviir and Vilja Savisaar-Toomast, whose defection from the Centre Party deprived it of its representation in the European Parliament, said they will not give up their MEP jobs.
Former vice chair of the Centre, Oviir said she was chosen to represent Estonia at the European Parliament in 2004 based on her second-best election result among Centre Party candidates at the general elections that she saw as a sufficient mandate to herself, not just her former party.
"I have been working at the European Parliament for over seven years - working, not just sitting," Oviir told Delfi, countering Centre Chairman Edgar Savisaar's comment made today that there is too little information about Oviir and Savisaar-Toomast's activities at the European Parliament to judge the impact of their walkout.
Oviir said she is not planning to join any other party and will remain a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats at the European Parliament.
"I have been rated highly by the Alliance of Liberals. I am a rapporteur for the faction on a number of documents and a head rapporteur on some issues," She said. "I have always spoken my mind and endeavored to improve the condition of people and the society. I don't follow the dictate of someone else who tells me what to do."
Vice chair of the Centre Party Kadri Simson said earleir today that Oviir and Savisaar-Toomast should free up their places to make room for loyalists, Jüri Ratas and Vladimir Velman.
Erkki Sivonen