At the meeting of President of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Eiki Nestor with Vice-President of the German Bundestag Johannes Singhammer, the discussion focused on the results of the German elections and the unity of Europe.

Both Nestor and Singhammer emphasised the importance of unified Europe at their meeting. Nestor underlined the good relations between the two countries. Singhammer pointed out that the defence spending of Estonia had exceeded the two percent threshold. He expressed the hope that Germany’s defence spending would also increase in the coming years.

The Vice-President of the Bundestag admitted that the negotiations on forming the government coalition of Germany could take long, because the positions of the possible coalition partners were very different. The newly elected parliament of Germany will come together for the first time on 24 October.

Today Nestor also delivered a welcome speech at the youth debating competition “Jugend Debattiert”. He is the patron of the event. The competition was held at KUMU art museum in Tallinn. Nestor said that the venue of the debating competition had been chosen very well, because the Internet and the Internet freedom were spoken about in Estonia as the e-state, and the digital summit of the leaders of the European Union was held in Tallinn at the same time.

In the final of the German-language international debating competition, young people from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Hungary debate on the topic “Should the Internet be totally regulated by the state?”.

In Nestor’s opinion, this topic is important because in the digital world many people feel they remain unidentified. He thinks that the people’s rights and freedoms in the digital world must be the same as in daily life.

Nestor wished success to all young participants of the competition, and emphasised that listening to the other party was more important than what you yourself said.  

Photos of the meeting.

Riigikogu Press Service
Epp-Mare Kukemelk
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