Estonia refuses to accept Russian diplomas

Estonia forwarded a message to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tallinn Friday, informing of its decision to annul the agreement signed earlier between the two nations concerning state’s education and recognition of academic degrees.

According to Tallinn, such documents are considered to be obsolete, reports Vlasti.net.

According to the last week's statement of Republic's Ministry of Education to a “Rosbalt” correspondent, Estonia plans to enter EU on May 1, 2004 and will no longer recognize diplomas automatically, but with strict accordance of the Lisbon convention.

Estonian Minister of Education Toivo Maimets announced that 450 diplomas had already been accepted on the basis on the convention in Estonia.

As far as accepting Russian diplomas in Estonia, the Minister pointed out to a rather abnormal situation. Apparently, while the actual intergovernmental agreement concerning education and recognition of academic degrees remains in power, their content has become obsolete. At the same time, he agreed that the agreement has played an important role in recent times.

In conclusion, Maimets pointed out that the annulment of the above mentioned agreement will not have negative effects on the nations' mutual desires to continue their relations in the field of education.

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