Tallinn  - According to their Baltic neighbours in Latvia and Lithuania, Estonians are reserved, serious, and a little bit slow. Even Estonians themselves grumble about a lack of spontaneity. So it comes as a surprise that one of the most imaginative and spontaneous ways of tackling the current global gloom originates in Estonia.

On May 1, more than 100,000 of Estonia's population of just 1.3 million will take part in a unique nationwide brainstorming session called "My Estonia."

Running from 10 am until 4 pm, the aim is simply "to think together and find solutions to make life in Estonia better," according to the organisers.

The country, which regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, may be experiencing one of Europe's deepest recessions with the economy expected to shrink by around 12 per cent this year, but Estonians are refusing to revert to type and simply shrug their shoulders.

Participants in My Estonia have registered online to form discussion groups, with leaders receiving information packs and training in how to handle the stream of ideas that they will have to deal with.

Organisers and participants alike are unpaid volunteers, though the project has up to 3 million kroons (200,000 dollars) at its disposal thanks to grants from the European Commission, the National Foundation for Civil Society and telecoms company Eesti Telekom.

As well as around 500 think-tanks or "brainstorming bees" being formed across the Baltic republic, Estonians abroad have formed groups in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Georgia and the United States. There is also an online "virtual think tank" allowing anyone with internet access to join in.

Each small discussion group will try to find solutions to issues which the participants raise on the spot and vary from big questions such as "How do we deal with unemployment?" and "How can we tackle stress levels?" to one 12-year-old girl's chosen discussion topic of "How can I get my parents home before 7 pm in the evening?"

One of the more unusual sessions will take place aboard a bus heading from the German city of Munich to the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Another think-tank in Tallinn itself will move around the city on a tram.

The brainstorming drive grew out of a previous project that saw 50,000 people turn out to clean up illegally dumped rubbish last year. It proved such a success that it was decided to harness people power to tackle more than discarded beer bottles.

Anneli Ohvril, one of the organisers, is convinced the My Estonia project will make a real difference.

"First, it is about attitude. At the moment people are waiting for the government to do things but we want them to understand that they can do so many things themselves without waiting," she told the German Press Agency dpa.

"Secondly, if people are active and do things together it will result in real action and real projects that will make our lives better," Ohvril said.

Instead of being a one day event that is quickly forgotten, My Estonia should be thought of as "just a beginning," Ohvril insisted.

"There will be a lot of ideas. After May 1 we will start executing them. The smallest projects might even be executed the same evening or the next morning. Bigger projects might take a month, two months or two years - it depends what kind of ideas we get," she said. (dpa)