Estonian Minister predicts joint city council for Helsinki and Tallinn
|
|
|
Estonia’s Minister of Economic Affairs Edgar Savisaar predicts that the Finnish and Estonian capitals, Helsinki and Tallinn, will eventually develop into twin cities with a joint city council.
According to Savisaar, the two cities already have close relations, and the relationship is getting closer all the time. Savisaar models his vision on the situation that exists between the Danish capital Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö, which are now linked by a bridge and tunnel.
As Savisaar sees it, the process is moving forward not as the result of any action by city politicians in the two capitals, but rather on the basis of activities of ordinary people, whose interaction is leading to more contacts between the two cities.
Many Finnish pensioners have moved to Tallinn, and some people commute from Tallinn to Helsinki to work.
Savisaar himself is no passive onlooker in these matters. He is seen as the key politician in Tallinn. In local elections, Savisaar’s Centre Party won more than half of the seats on the Tallinn City Council.
The new council elects the mayor for the city. The post was supposed to go to Savisaar, but he decided to hold on to his government portfolio until 2007 before taking over as mayor.
Until then, there is little doubt in the minds of the people in Tallinn who the main advisor of the 27-year-old Mayor Jüri Ratanen is.
Savisaar has previously predicted that in ten years Helsinki and Tallinn would have a common city council, and that a common city board would meet in 20 years.
"It is the likely development. Everything is moving in that direction", Savisaar notes. The trend is reinforced by many common projects, in which the EU is also involved.
However, cooperation across the Gulf of Finland is moving forward in small steps, in Savisaar’s view. He predicts that at some stage an overall plan will be made, covering both cities, and infrastructure will be planned for the whole region.
"I believe that at some point there will be a common ticket for local transport, which will be valid on both sides of the Gulf of Finland", Savisaar predicts.
He adds that the ticket would not have to be limited to the two capitals; the validity could extend to the surroundings of both cities. In his vision, street signs in the two cities might be in both Finnish and Estonian.
Savisaar also does not want to rule out a tunnel to link the two cities.
"The idea came from Finland. Five years ago I would have said that the tunnel is a utopian idea, but no longer. However, I would not predict when, if ever, it will be implemented."
If all of the visions come to pass, Savisaar feels that it is important to make sure that the relationship between the two cities remains on an equal footing, lest one city become a suburb of the other.
Savisaar feels that even with closer links, the national identities of the two countries will remain unchanged.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 14.11.2005 - TODAY |
 Estonian Minister predicts joint city council for Helsinki and Tallinn
|
|
