Country Committee Estonia

Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the North by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa and other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of ca. 45.000 square kilometres. The capital city of Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest towns of the country. The Estonian language is the first language of the majority of its population.

Estonia was one of the last civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity in the 13th century. After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden and the Russian Empire a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the   24 February 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then warring Russian and German Empires. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied until it was in 1944 annexed into the UDSSR as an administrative subunit.

Following the bloodless Estonian “Singing Revolution” of 1988-1990, the nation’s independence from The Soviet Union was restored on 20 August 1991.

Estonia is a developed country, with advanced high-income economy. The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic, administratively subdivided into 15 counties. With a population of just over 1,3 Million, it is one of the least populous members of the European Union, the Eurozone, the OECD and NATO.

Estonia belongs to the Finnish-Estonian District 1420 which is one of the 6 Finnish Districts that is part of Rotary. District 1420 includes 73 clubs in Southern Finland and 21 clubs in Estonia. These clubs have a total of 2.600 members (03/2020). The Estonian clubs have 600 members.

The ICC Estonia-Germany has been chartered virtually on 8th September 2022 (Protokol of Agreement of 1st July 2022).

The following main targets have been put down in writing in our LoI signed on 8th September 2022:

  • Reciprocal visits to strengthen friendship and projects
  • Support of youth and vocational as well as friendship exchanges between both countries
  • Develop sister or twin club relationship between clubs in both countries
  • Explore our counties combined history

First chairs are
Estonian Section: Alar Maarend, RC Nomme-Tallinn, D 1420                      (alar.maarend@gmail.com)
German Section: Peter Giese, RC Detmold Oerlinghausen, D 1900             (wpgiese@gmail.com)

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