Italy and Estonia
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
Politics and Society differences
Health System:
 Italy: It’s totally free, indeed it is funded by the taxes
paid by the citiziens. Only a few operations are paid
directly by the patient. According to the World Health
Organization, italian health system is the second best
one in the world regarding the low costs for patients,
but the costs for the State are very high.
 Estonia: It’s not free, and even the first aid service
requests a payment. But the costs for each patient
aren’t very high, thanks to state rates.
Linguistic and Ethnic Minorances:
 Italy: Though the strong immigrations to Italy, there is a low
presence of linguistic minorances. Indeed, altogether they
consist in barely 6% of the entire italian population. The
biggest linguistic minority community is the Albanian one;
 Estonia: There is a strong Slavs presence: more than 25% of
the residents in Estonia are Russian or Ukrainian. Some of
them live in Estonia since the fall of Soviet Union, but They
still don’t have nor the Estonian citizenship nor any other.
Moreover, about 8% of Estonian people have Russian origins.
Politics and Society similiarities
Domestic policy:
 Italy and Estonia are both a democracy based on
universal suffrage, and a parlamentary Republic.
The executive, legislative and judiciary powers
belong to the government (chosen by the prime
minister), to the parliament (in Italy
“Parlamento”, in Estonia “Riigikogu”) and to
the judes, respectively. The head of the state is
the president of the Republic, elected by the
parliament.
Foreign policy:
 They’re both members of NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization), WHO (World Health
Organization), and UN (United Nations). Italy
joined to European Union in 1957, and Estonia
did the same in 2004. The corrent value is the
Euro in Italy as well as in Estonia.
Culture and Traditions differences
Language:
 Italy: There is only one official language, italian,
derived from ancient latin. English is spoken by
just 20% of the inhabitants;
 Estonia: Estonian language is the only official
one, but Russian is the main language of the
Russian minority and it is spoken by 66% of the
population. English is spoken by about half of
the population.
Religion:
 Italy: Italy is a laic State, but due to historical reasons (and
its closeness to the Vatican City), Christian Catholic
religion is surely the most diffused.
 Estonia: Christian Orthodox and Luteranism are the most
diffused religions in Estonia, but in the country there is a
very high rate of Atheism: the 76% of the population
declares not to believe in any religion.
Social sphere’s differences
Tourism:
 Italy: Many of the most visited cities in Italy
are not sea cities or their coasts aren’t very
important from an economical and touristic
point of view. Despite that, in Italy the seaside
tourism is very strong and very important for
the economy of the country.
 Estonia: The most visited cities are all by the
sea. Nevertheless, they’re not visited because
of their coasts: due to the climate, the seaside
tourism is almost absent in Estonia.
Social sphere’s similiarities
Tourism:
 The sightseeing tourism is very diffused in
both the two countries. Italy and Estonia are
indeed very important from a cultural point of
view, so their historical attractions appeal a lot
of tourists every year. Also the natural beauties
of these countries are very important for the
tourism.
Harbours:
 Italian and Estonian ports (overall Genoa in
Italy and Tallinn in Estonia) are popular not
only because of tourism, but also for trade
reasons. This demonstrates how the sea is
important in the economy of both the two
countries.
Ecological differences and similarities
Overfishing:
 Italy: Overfishing is a big problem, that causes
the increase of the presence of jellyfishes in the
sea. Jellyfish is a very dangerous animal, not only
for men, but overall to fishes that because of
them are strongly decreasing in the Italian sea.
 Estonia: Overfishing regards overall the cods.
Indeed, unfortunately they are almost on the edge
of extinction in the Baltic sea. New laws are
trying to limit the fishing of this species.
Invasive species
 Italy: The most dangerous species that invaded the
Italian Ecosystem is the Caulerpa Taxifolia, a sea
plant that diffuses a toxic substance that kills lots of
fishes and other benign seaweeds by consuming all
the oxygen in the water.
 Estonia: Mnemiopsis leidy is devastating the Baltic
Sea. It is very similar to a Jellyfish, but it’s not as
dangerous to men as a common jellyfish. Otherwise
it eats larvae, so several sea species can’t reproduce
themselves.
Ecological differences and similiarities
Sea trash:
 Italy: For a long time Italy was the country with
the highest sea pollution rate, due to the absence of
laws against the industrial pollution, but also
because of the behaviour of people: plastic
pollution is still today a big problem.
 Estonia: Baltic Sea is the one with the highest of
War wastes (that date back to the second world
war). The unexploded bombs are dangerous only
when they’re touched, but the real problem are the
chemical weapons that after the war were released
in the water.
Both the two countries’ seas suffer because of
serious pollution, due to intense marine traffic.
Indeed, there is a strong presence of potentially
dangerous ships (as tanker) in Italy’s sea as well
as in the Estonia’s one. Also medium ships are
dangerous to the environment, because of their
fuel that is often released in the sea.