Estonia puts forward president Ilves for top EU jobs
13.11.2009, 13:50
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip nominated President Toomas Ilves as a candidate for the posts of both European Union president and EU foreign minister.
Bloomberg quoted Ansip saying at a press conference today that Ilves’s chances were “not unlikely”.
Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen has already said that Finland would support Ilves's candidacy. Estonia in turn has promised to support FInland's Olli Rehn for the job.
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Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose government holds the rotating EU presidency, said yesterday he will put forward one name as a candidate for EU president and another for the bloc’s foreign minister at a Nov. 19 summit in Brussels where leaders of the 27-nation bloc are due to decide who gets the posts.
The 55-year-old Ilves, who was born in Stockholm and is known for his trademark bow-ties, in 2006 became Estonia’s third elected president since the end of Soviet occupation in 1991. Educated at Columbia University, he ran the Estonian desk for Radio Free Europe before the end of the Soviet Union and served twice as foreign minister.