The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Ms Keit Pentus-Rosimannus met in Tallinn on 17 April 2015. Bilateral relations, regional cooperation as well as key issues of the international agenda were discussed during the meeting.

Ministers expressed the intention to further develop the longstanding and close partnership between Germany and Estonia and strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation on EU issues. With this purpose the Ministers encourage their relevant authorities and public media outlets to cooperate with the aim of strengthening civil society, promoting education and counterbalancing Russian disinformation.

Both sides agree that their efforts are intended to complement measures decided within the EU and/or NATO context. The Ministers agreed on an indicative list of spheres of cooperation, as follows.

I. Media and communication

This field of cooperation is aimed at boosting the professional skills of media outlets and/or individual journalists across language borders.

A. Support the development of Estonian public TV services in Russian (incl. online services)

B. Share TV/web programmes by Deutsche Welle in Russian for Estonian Public Broadcasting (documentaries, infotainment, entertainment etc.)

C. Support basic and advanced training programmes for journalists and journalism students scholarship programmes for students via the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD):

(1) Master’s scholarships for journalism students

(2) Scholarships for summer courses

(3) Guest lectureships; which could, in the future, result in cooperation projects between German and Estonian journalism study programmes

(4) Group trip by Master’s students to Germany, partially funded by the DAAD

(5) Study-tours to Germany for senior representatives of journalism schools in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

(6) Editorial internships from the beginning of June until the end of July 2015 in Germany for interested Estonian journalists via the International Journalists’ Programme (IJP)

II. Strengthening of civil society

This field of cooperation is aimed at fostering people-to-people contacts.

A. Assisting the Goethe Institute in continuing its work on German language teaching in Estonia

B. Seminars for Estonian German language teachers on media skills and civic education

C. Promote the teaching of media skills to Estonian pupils, thus raising their awareness on how to deal with disinformation

D. Facilitate cooperation between German and Estonian NGOs on civic education

E. Promote youth exchange programmes between Germany and Estonia