The Estonian government has agreed on switching to need-based social benefits in 2028, Education Minister Kristina Kallas announced, BNS reports. She argued that the state and taxpayers could no longer afford distributing equal support to everyone, and that doing so was not even necessary. Better data would allow the state to provide better personalised services, Kallas…
Estonia’s main opposition party, conservative Fatherland (Isamaa), remains the country’s most popular political party, according to Norstat’s latest poll for the Institute for Societal Research (YI), ERR reports. Fatherland had 28.3% support among voters in the poll taken over August-September 2024, which was largely unchanged from the previous poll three weeks earlier. The ruling Estonian…
The lowest level of material and social deprivation in the Baltic States was in Estonia in 2023, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Estonia had altogether around 31,000 people who were suffering from severe material and social deprivation in 2023, which was down from 40,000 in 2022. The number stood at 108,000 (135,000) in Latvia…
The Estonian government will allocate EUR 2mn for state-owned rail operator Elron to open a regular passenger train connection between Tartu in southern Estonia and the Latvian capital, Riga, ERR reports. The support would allow Elron to open the new passenger service in spring 2025. Piret Hartman, Minister of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, said that the…
The finance ministers of the eight Nordic and Baltic countries as well as Poland have protested against the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) plan to resume missions to Russia, Euractiv reports. The nine EU ministers sent a joint letter to IMF director Kristalina Georgieva, warning that the decision to resume dialogue with an aggressor state would…
The Estonian government expects to raise around EUR 2.47bn of new tax revenue to finance increased defence spending by the end of 2028, the Ministry of Finance estimated, ERR reports. The new so-called broad security tax will consist of three components: increased VAT rate, rise in personal income tax, and a corporate profit tax. The…
The president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, has presented her list of candidates for EU commissioners, ERR reports. Estonia’s former prime minister, Kaja Kallas, was named as candidate for EU’s foreign policy chief earlier. If confirmed by the European Parliament, she will be one of six EC vice-presidents. Meanwhile, von der…
Estonia’s three-party coalition government has reached agreement on tax changes, Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced, ERR reports. He said that the government would raise the corporate profit tax, personal income tax, and VAT to finance increased spending on defence. The government will raise the VAT rate by 2 percentage points as of 1 July 2025…
The Baltic and Polish parliamentary committees of European affairs held a joint meeting in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on 15-16 September 2024, BNS reported. The committees urged the EU to strengthen the protection of Poland’s border amid a new surge in migrant flows. Zygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the European affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament,…