Donald Tusk visits Estonia today
President of the European Council Donald Tusk is making a one-day visit to Estonia today. Tusk will meet with Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
Rõivas and Tusk will have a working lunch together, after which they are scheduled to give a short press conference at the Stenbock House.
Later in the day, Tusk will meet with President Ilves.
Donald Tusk was Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014, having also been co-founder and former chairman of the Civic Platform party. He became President of the European Council on December 1 last year.
Tusk's nomintation was widely seen as a sign of Poland's growing influence in the EU affairs. As Poland has traditionally been a strong ally of Estonia and other Baltic states, it is also hoped that the regional security concerns will have a larger resonance in the European Union, thanks to Tusk.
"The last major enlargement of the European Union took place ten and a half years ago. Up until now, none of the top EU leaders has come from the member states that joined in 2004 or 2007. Today, this finally happened," Estonian President Ilves said in a congratulations letter when Tusk officially took up the position in December. "I can only recall a limited number of other posts that have pleased me as much as this one – I am proud to see one of the best politicians in Europe assume office as President of the European Council. I wish you lots of strength and fortitude in this difficult task. You can always be sure that Estonia will be with you," Ilves added.
Editor: M. Oll, S. Tambur