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U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Press Statement

Press Statement by James B. Foley, Deputy Spokesman
December 14, 1998

The United States welcomes the Estonian Parliaments adoption December 8 of a new citizenship and naturalization law that fulfills the last of the 30 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recommendations for harmonizing Estonia's laws with OSCE standards. We consider the OSCE recommendations the appropriate benchmarks for judging Estonia's performance on citizenship and naturalization law, and we note that OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities van Der Stoel has stated that the new law is broadly in conformity with his recommendations.

The measure makes now-stateless children (almost all ethnic Russians) born after Estonian independence in 1991 eligible for citizenship if their parents have lived in Estonia for at least five years and do not enjoy citizenship in another country. The United States looks forward to the implementation of the new law, which will facilitate the more complete integration of Estonian society.

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