Estonia’s Social Insurance Board (SKA) has cancelled child benefits for nearly 3,000 Estonian children who mostly live abroad since 2019, ERR reports. Signe Riisalo, Minister of Social Protection, pointed out that family benefits are only meant for people living in Estonia. People paying taxes in Estonia should not pay for benefits to people who do…
The city council of Estonia’s second-largest city, Tartu, has voted in favour of concluding a sister city agreement with the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, ERR reports. The main focus of the cooperation agreement will be to provide help for Ukraine’s reconstruction, civil protection, and crisis management. Both Tartu and Lviv are important university cities…
Estonia has opened a new military base in the village of Juba, near the southern Estonian town of Võru, ERR reports. The Reedo army base has 14 buildings that can accommodate up to 1,000 Estonian and NATO military personnel. The base is a mustering zone where allied troops can prepare for combat. The construction costs…
The municipal public transport company of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Tallinna Linnatransport (TLT), will temporarily replace all trolleybuses due to the poor condition of the fleet, ERR reports. TLT will replace the trolleybuses on all four routes with buses as of 1 November 2024. The company plans to procure new trolleybuses and electric buses. The…
The financial regulatory authorities of the eight Nordic and Baltic countries have conducted a financial crisis simulation exercise under the Nordic Baltic Stability Group framework, ERR reports. The exercise was aimed at testing preparedness for a potential crisis situation, including in communication, information sharing, and collaboration between the authorities. Around 450 participants representing Nordic, Baltic,…
A team of researchers at Estonia’s University of Tartu (TÜ), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), and the Institute of the Estonian Language (EKI) will teach the Estonian language and culture to large language models (LLMs), ERR reports. The project led by TÜ’s Institute of Computer Science will train open-source LLMs to speak Estonian more fluently…
Estonia’s state-owned postal services provider, Eesti Post, which operates under the Omniva brand, plans to raise the price of universal postal services by a third as of 1 January 2025, ERR reports. If the Estonian Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) approves the rate hike, the postage price of a standard domestic letter will rise from current EUR…
The Estonian government has allocated a record EUR 185mn of EU funds for renovating apartment buildings, ERR reports. Infrastructure Minister Vladimir Svet said that another EUR 80-90mn would be available for renovations annually over the next three years. The state will thus provide altogether almost EUR 500mn of support through various instruments for apartment building…
Estonia’s producer price index of industrial output (PPI) rose by 1.7% in August 2024, compared to the same period of 2023, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Producer prices rose by on year 1.4% in manufacturing but fell by 1.9% in the production of food products. Compared to July 2024, the PPI rose…