The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has passed in final reading amendments freezing state funding for political parties for one year, LETA reports. Altogether 88 MPs voted in favour of the amendments. State support for political parties in 2025 will be calculated based on the minimum monthly wage in 2024. Altogether 13 parties received a total…
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 world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, Dutch-based Pon.Bike, has opened a new production facility in Kedainiai in central Lithuania, BNS reports. The company invested EUR 57mn in the factory, which will produce up to 450,000 bicycles per year. The facility, located in the Kedainiai Free Economic Zone (KLEZ), will employ around 600 people. Under an agreement…
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…
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…
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…
Lithuania has asked the European Commission (EC) to disburse EUR 463mn from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), BNS reports. This is Lithuania’s third payment request under the facility. Lithuania asked for EUR 174.7mn in grants and EUR 288.3mn in loans. The EC will now assess the request and assess Lithuania’s achievement of the…
Estonia’s liberal opposition party, Right-Wingers (Parempoolsed), has re-elected former prosecutor general Lavly Perling as its chairperson, ERR reports. She was the only candidate to the post. Perling labelled the current three-party government a “coalition of three socialists,” criticising the government’s tax policies. However, all current parliamentary parties had made “baseless promises” and taken part in…
The Estonian government has agreed to provide EUR 160mn of state support for large-scale export-oriented investments in Estonia over 2025-2028, ERR reports. Economy and Industry Minister Erkki Keldo said that the support mechanism was aimed at regaining Estonia’s competitiveness in attracting investors to knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy. The scheme will be managed by the…