TALLINN. May 15 (Interfax) - The Estonian government refused on Thursday to facilitate the naturalization of non-native residents, the government press service told Interfax.
"The Interior Ministry proposed to deny support to the bill adjusting the Citizenship Law. The bill was not supported by the Education and Science Ministry and the Justice Ministry," it said.
The country's biggest opposition group, Center Party, proposed an easier naturalization procedure.
The bill drawn up by Center Party proposed naturalization of babies born in Estonia, one of whose parents is a non-citizen, on the condition the parents have been residing in Estonia for at least five years.
It also exempted from the Estonian language test persons older than 65 and allowed them to take constitution and Citizenship Law tests not only in Estonian but also in English and Russian.
The 1.3-million-strong Estonia still has about 90,000 "non-citizens", mostly Russian-speaking persons, more than 20 years since the proclamation of its independence.
In spite of the criticism of the naturalization policy by the United Nations, the OSCE, human rights organizations and the Russian Federation, the Estonian government has repeatedly denied essential adjustments to this policy.