Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Society

Ossinovski said Sweden has filed a request for assistance to be able to participate in the refugee allocation mechanism within the EU. "No further details have been agreed by now. Sweden has not come up with an approximate number either and has left that matter for the Commission to assess," Ossinovski said.

Members of the Estonian government, including the prime minister, have briefly discussed the subject, Ossinovski said. "If a proposal like this comes from the European Union and is agreed upon in Europe within the existing ceilings when it comes to money and numbers in such way that the ceiling for the acceptance of refugees by Estonia does not change, it probably would be easier for us to handle this matter with the state of Sweden than with the states with whom we have agreed about it, including Greece and Italy," the Social Democrat minister said.

Ossinovski said he believes that reallocation of refugees with Sweden would probably be quite easy, as Sweden is situated closer to Estonia and relations between the countries are good.

"As regards the inclusion of Sweden into that system, as I said, I think that this would be a welcome development for Estonia because it would be definitely easier for the Estonian state to work together on this with Sweden than with countries that are situated at a significantly greater distance from us, such as Italy and Greece," Ossinovski said.