Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini met with his Estonian counterpart Keit Pentus-Rosimannus in Tallinn on Wednesday. Pentus-Rosimannus said she was pleased that her Finnish colleague had come to visit so soon after taking office. A day earlier, Soini made his first ministerial visit to Stockholm where he met with his Swedish opposite number, Margot Wallström.

In his first foreign press conference since taking office, Soini took the opportunity to harshly criticise the European Commission for its plan to resolve the problem of asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean by distributing them in eastern European countries based on quotas. Under the plan, Estonia would have to accept more than 1,000 asylum seekers within a couple of years.

Each nation must decide

“When it comes to resolving the refugee question, we in Finland feel strongly that each European Union member state should be able to decide on the matter for itself. It cannot be right that some organisation decides things for countries,” said Soini, whose Finns Party has taken a tough line on immigration and the EU.

The two foreign ministers said that Estonia and Finland both oppose the Commission’s plan and will work together to shift the issue onto the right track. Soini said Finland is ready to contribute experts and equipment to efforts to battle human trafficking in northern Libya and on the Mediterranean.

“People fleeing war must naturally be helped as much as is feasible for a country, and as much as the country is able,” Pentus-Rosimannus said, adding that Estonia is “actively dealing with determining its capabilities for receiving refugees”.

“The EU’s strength lies in working together and in solidarity, and that is why Estonia does not wish to be watching from the side-lines while the migration problem is being discussed,” she said.

The two ministers also discussed the Russian-Ukrainian situation, Greece and plans for a regional liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal to be shared by the two countries.