OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2010. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerweller, who was on a short stop in Estonia on the way from Berlin to Tokyo. The main topic of the meeting was Estonia’s activities towards joining the Eurozone. Westerwelle highly appreciated the efforts of Estonia to meet the Maastricht criteria and expressed the political support of Germany to Estonia joining the Eurozone, reported the Official website valitsus.ee.

Prime Minister Ansip introduced in greater detail the conservative budget policy of Estonia, thanks to which essential reserves have been collected for Estonia. “Estonia is a small country, where we have managed to keep our finances in order. Our external sovereign debt in 2008 was one of the lowest in the European Union: 4.6 per cent of GDP,” he said. Ansip noted that due to the conservative budget policy, Estonia quickly managed to acclimatise in the crisis situation as well. “All these efforts allow for hoping that we fulfil our goal of joining the Eurozone as of 1 January next year,” said the Prime Minister.

The German Foreign Minister stated that although the decision on Estonia joining the Euro has not been made yet and is mainly up to the institutions of the European Union to make, Estonia can count on political support from Germany.

At the meeting, the standing of Estonia as a candidate for the home country of the IT agency was also considered. The Prime Minister stressed that the establishment of a new agency for managing the IT systems of the field of justice and internal affairs is important in Estonia’s opinion. According to the Prime Minister, the establishment of the agency in Estonia would not bring about unproportionally high financial obligations for the EU; rather, the non-establishment of the agency may mean higher expenses for the field in the future.

At the moment, France is also running as a candidate for the home country of the IT agency in addition to Estonia. The decision on the establishment of the agency should be made during the Spanish Presidency.

The third topic that was discussed at the meeting was the security situation in Afghanistan. Generally, it was maintained that the level of international support in Afghanistan should be increased primarily in the civil fields, which would help the Afghans to speed up the reconstruction of their country.