According to Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, 2021 was characterised by crisis management, balance restoration and establishing new goals.
“We did our best this year to keep both the society and economy as open as possible in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic and to ensure that children could attend school,” said Kallas. “The Government’s priority this year was to ensure that people are cared for and educated and a strong and protected Estonia. We prepared a future-oriented state budget and initiated important reforms and decisions, which had been held up for a long time, and also made preparations for the green transition, merged the national fleets, secured the border and are moving forward with reforming old-age pensions on favourable conditions. We also took important steps in the fight against corruption and money laundering related to virtual currencies.”
Kallas also highlighted the importance of foreign relations. “In internationally turbulent times, Estonia received the largest defence budget in history for the next year and we decided to speed up the construction of the eastern border. What is also important is that we have won back Estonia’s place on the international arena.”
“I thank all Estonian people who have done everything in their power to keep our society open. In times of uncertainty, it’s important to stick together and care for each other,” said Kallas.
The Government’s Action Programme contains specific activities, persons responsible and deadlines for fulfilling the coalition’s fundamental principles. The overview primarily focuses on the fulfilment of the Government’s eight priorities. A total of 228 tasks of 312 are estimated to be fulfilled by the end of 2021.
The Government’s eight priorities are: emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic; ensuring that people are healthy and cared for; smart economy; green Estonia; educated and smart people; active and protected Estonia; balanced Estonia and open and secure country that is based on the rule of law.
In order to promote the priorities, the Government this year adopted the Public Health Development Plan 2020–2030 and the Green Paper on Mental Health. The objectives of the Development Plan are to extend the life expectancy, increase the number of healthy life years and reduce health inequality while the Green Paper provides the lines of action for the development of the field of mental health.
The Government approved the addition of the project for the construction of Tallinn Hospital in Estonia’s recovery plan. Tallinn Hospital will combine the current activities of West Tallinn Central Hospital and East Tallinn Central Hospital.
The Riigikogu adopted the National Family Mediation Service Act initiated by the Government, the purpose of which is enabling to conclude agreements in view of the wellbeing of the child in issues concerning the organisation of the life of the child both out-of-court and during the early stages of legal proceedings in the event of parents’ separation.
The Government approved the Estonian Research and Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Plan 2021–2035, which, for the first time, defines the common goals of research and development, innovation and entrepreneurship. It focuses more on increasing the impact of research and researchers and the use of research results in meeting Estonia’s development needs.
The Government adopted the Digital Society Development Plan 2030. The Development Plan includes the key participants’ shared principles, development trends and operational objectives and lines of action in the field of digital governance, cyber security and connectivity.
The Government approved the Transport and Mobility Development Plan for 2021–2035 for the next 15 years, which aims at making the transport system safer and more sustainable and paying more attention to the strategic development of mobility.
The Government approved the preparation of the National Energy Sector Development Plan. The development plan focuses on local renewable energy production and increasing energy efficiency while also ensuring Estonia’s energy security.
The Government approved three sectoral development plans, which define the main developments in the fields of education, language and youth work until 2035: the Education Field Development Plan for 2021–2035, the Youth Field Development plan for 2021–2035 and the Estonian Language Development Plan for 2021–2035. An analysis and proposals on the principles of funding higher education have been prepared.
Two important action plans have been compiled: the Estonian-Language Education Action Plan and the Action Plan for Ensuring a New Generation of Teachers and Increasing the Value of Teaching Profession. The Government approved two sectoral development plans, which set forth the main development trends in the development of culture and cohesive society through 2030: the Culture Development Plan 2021–2030 and the Cohesive Estonia Development Plan 2021–2030.
The Government approved the National Defence Development Plan 2030, which serves as the central document for national defence capability planning and development. The objective of the new development plan is to identify the non-military and military capability developments that are in line with the possibilities of the state based on threat scenarios focusing on future threats and the national strategic choices provided for in the bases of the Estonia 2035 Development Strategy and security policy.
The Government adopted the designated spatial plan of the central training area of the Defence Forces. The designated spatial plan grew out of the need to use the training area for training that is based on existing and new capabilities of the Defence Forces.
The Government approved Estonia’s objectives and main activities in the European Union’s common foreign and security policy. In 2021, Estonia has helped to build broad support for our closest allies, whose borders were hit by the hybrid attack organised by Belarus, and led the provision of a strong common response to Russia for military threats against Ukraine.
The Government approved the Estonian Agriculture and Fisheries Development Plan 2030. The aim of the development plan is to ensure that Estonian food is preferred, the protection of the living environment and biodiversity, the success of companies in the food sector and the livelihoods of rural and coastal communities.
As part of simplifying the process of transferring land to local governments, the Government agreed on common land policy principles and initiated the preparations for amending the State Assets Act and the Land Reform Act, which aims to accelerate the process of transfering land and make the process more flexible.
The two-year revision and discussions of a broad-based expert committee resulted in the draft legislation amending the Local Government Organisation Act, one of the central aims of which is to increase the local government’s right to self-organise.
The Government decided to initiate the amendment of the Emergency Act, which brought the shaping of crisis management policy under the Government Office and ensured the readiness to form and store a central reserve in order to secure the security of supply for the population by creating AS Eesti Varude Keskus.
The Government approved the Internal Security Development Plan 2020–2030, which acknowledges that maintaining and increasing the security of society requires everyone – people, state agencies and companies alike – to contribute and care about each other.
The Government approved the Guidelines for Ministers and their Advisors to Avoid Conflicts of Interest and the Good Practice in Communicating with Lobbyists for Officials. The guidelines for avoiding conflicts of interest are a collection of ethics principles for ministers and their advisors, which help to avoid the realisation of conflicts of interest. The good practice in communicating with lobbyists increases the transparency and clarity of legislative drafting, making the publication of at least quarterly reports on meeting with lobbyists mandatory.
A summary table on all of the levels of indicators for achieving the objectives of all chapters of the Action Programme can be found at the end of the Government’s Action Programme report. The report on the fulfilment of the Action Programme is published on the Government’s website at https://valitsus.ee/valitsuse-eesmargid-ja-tegevused/valitsemise-alused/tegevusprogramm.
The 2021 overview of the Government’s Action Programme can be viewed at valitsus.ee.