European People's Party president visits Estonia as guest of Isamaa
President of the European People's Party (EPP) Joseph Daul is visiting Estonia on Friday and Saturday, guest of Isamaa, whose MEPs sit with the grouping at the European parliament.
Over his two-day trip, Daul is to attend Isamaa's general meeting as well as visit the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Tallinn, BNS reports, where he will be accompanies by foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu, and European parliamentary candidate Riho Terras.
He will also give a speech at the Isamaa convention, it is reported, as well as meeting entrepreneurs in the tech and agricultural spheres, and members from the defense sector, it is reported.
"Isamaa is a member of the largest political force in the European Parliament, and it is in Estonia's interests that close cooperation between the EPP and Isamaa should be maintained," Isamaa leader Helir-Valdor Seeder said of the meeting.
The EPP has 217 seats in the 751-seat European Parliament; outgoing MEP Tunne Kelam, Isamaa's sole representative at the current parliament, and a long-term campaigner for recognition of Soviet crimes against humanity, sat with the EPP during his tenure – Isamaa is the only Estonian party currently to do so, in fact.
Isamaa will also choose its leader (Helir-Valdor Seeder and Illimar Lepik von Wiren is head of international cooperation at NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) in Tallinn, are the reported candidates) and party committee at Saturday's meeting.
Daul, 72, is a French politician who has been head of the EPP since 2013.
Editor: Andrew Whyte