Estonia has voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution urging Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian territories, ERR reports. Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna noted that international law must apply to all UN member states. At the same time, he stressed that the vote did not change Estonia’s support for Israel. The US…
Estonia’s state-owned national air carrier, Nordica, may lose its main partner, Sweden-based Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), ERR reports. Nordica provides operational services under the Xfly brand, and SAS has been Nordica’s largest client. However, SAS has now signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Sweden’s Braathens Regional Airlines (BRA). Sander Salmu, deputy secretary general for mobility at…
Latvia’s national air carrier, airBaltic, may gain a new strategic investor either before or after the company’s planned IPO, according to CEO Martin Gauss, LETA reports. The company expects to announce the IPO in the second half of 2024 or in 2025. The goal is to raise EUR 300mn on the stock exchange, ERR reports….
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 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…