The chairman of Estonia’s national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, Urmas Reinsalu, signalled major changes in economic policy after the parliamentary elections in March 2027, ERR reports. He said that the current government had failed to manage state finances and argued that government operating costs should have been cut more. Fatherland’s first task therefore was to fix…
The US failed to invite several NATO allies, including the three Baltic States, to a working group meeting in Poland to discuss the future of the alliance, Politico reported. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal confirmed that Estonia had not received an invitation, but stressed that the gathering was not an official NATO meeting, ERR reported. Defence…
The Estonian government has banned transit shipments of grain from Russia and Belarus, ERR reports. Amid attacks on shipping in the Black Sea, Russia has diverted grain exports away from Black Sea ports to other ports, including on the Baltic Sea coast. Russia and Belarus have not used Estonian ports to export grain to third…
The share of new businesses registered in proportion to the number of active enterprises in Lithuania was the highest in the entire EU in 2024, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Lithuania’s so-called enterprise birth rate stood at 17.5% in 2024, compared to 13.9% in Latvia and 12.1% in Estonia. The EU average was 10.4%….
The Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, has elected Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise as the country’s next president for a five-year term, ERR reports. Madise received 71 votes in the first round of voting in the 101-member parliament. She was the only candidate. MPs of the opposition Estonian Centre Party and Conservative People’s Party of Estonia…
Estonia’s Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, has been officially registered as candidate for president, ERR reports. Altogether 75 out of 101 MPs nominated Madise, who was the only candidate registered, ERR reported. Madise will need 68 votes to be elected president in the parliament, the Riigikogu, in the first round on 2 September 2026. She…
The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, travelled to Moscow to warn Russia against attacking NATO countries, particularly the Baltic States, CBS, Politico, and The Wall Street Journal reported. Earlier, US intelligence assessed that Russia was considering attacks in the Baltic region to test NATO unity. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman,…
One of the prime architects of the restoration of Estonia’s independence, Siim Kallas, has died at the age of 77 years, his daughter, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, announced, ERR reports. Kallas served as president of the Bank of Estonia in 1991-1995, member of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, in 1995-2004 and 2019-2024, foreign…
Estonia’s most popular candidates for prime minister are opposition leaders Urmas Reinsalu of the national-conservative Fatherland party and Mihhail Kõlvart of the Estonian Centre Party, according to a Norstat poll for the Institute of Societal Studies (YI) in August 2026, ERR reports. The survey showed that Reinsalu was the preferred candidate for prime minister with…
