President of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Lauri Hussar will deliver a speech at the ceremony. Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Urmas Viilma will say a blessing. Erling Eding, Student of the Drama School of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, will read out the Estonian Declaration of Independence.
President of the Republic of Estonia Alar Karis, President Kersti Kaljulaid, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, members of the Riigikogu and the Government, representatives of constitutional institutions and the diplomatic corps, the Estonian Flag Association and the leadership of the Defence Forces and the Defence League have been invited to the ceremony.
The flag guards of academic associations, patriotic organisations and schools will attend the ceremony in the Governor’s Garden.
The united male choir of the Estonian Male Choir Association, boys choir and preparatory choir (Juhanid) of the Estonian National Opera, and Tallinn Police Orchestra will perform “Eesti lipp” (“Flag of Estonia”, music by Enn Võrk, words by Martin Lipp; conductor Indrek Vijard), “Hoia, Jumal, Eestit” (“God Save Estonia”, music by Juhan Aavik, words by Aleksander Leopold Raudkepp; conductor Kuldar Schüts), “Jää vabaks, Eesti meri” (“Stay Free, Estonian Sea!”, by Viktor Konstantin Oxford; conductor Martin Einmann), and “Kodumaa” (“Homeland”, music by Raimond Kull, words by Mihkel Veske; conductor Riivo Jõgi).
The ceremony will end at around 8.05 a.m.
Live coverage of the ceremony with sign language interpretation will be provided by ETV and ETV2. The ceremony will also be broadcast by ETV+ and Vikerraadio.
“Global power relations are changing before our very eyes,” says the Head of the Estonian delegation Mati Raidma in his speech. “Europe has reached a critical point. We have seen many attacks and acts of sabotage against the infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Russia also continues to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” says Raidma, who is a special rapporteur on the OSCE PA on Ukraine for the first year, with special interest in resilience.
Raidma emphasises that we cannot forget the energy and infrastructure security in Ukraine and must show full solidarity with our friends in Ukraine in every possible way. He sees it as vital that OSCE continues a policy of fair peace and liability of the aggressor, not rekindling relations with Moscow, and that Europe continues supporting Ukraine until the victory.
Heljo Pikhof, member of the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions of the Assembly, will speak on social media, AI, and elections. “Disinformation has spread around the world. We must enhance digital hygiene and media competence in our societies. Only a society with a strong media competence can withstand the rise of misinformation and AI,” Pikhof said.
The Winter Meeting takes place today and tomorrow in Austria, where the committees of the OSCE PA convene: the Committee on Political Affairs and Security; the Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment; the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions; and the Standing Committee. There will also be fringe meetings between Nordic and Baltic countries (NB8) as well as between NB8 and Ukraine.
The aim of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is to increase the involvement of its participating states in resolving European political and security issues, to enhance civilian control over military affairs, and to strengthen the responsibility and influence of members of parliament.
President of the Riigikogu Lauri Hussar welcomed the initiative of the school students. “It is only natural that in the only country in the world where the very first, original flag still exists, schoolchildren form an association of flag guard teams and thus promote our flag culture to even greater heights,” the President of the Riigikogu said.
The initiator of the idea to form the Association, final year pupil of Tallinn School No. 21 Ernst Johannes Pae said at the founding ceremony that the most important purpose of the Association was to promote flag culture in schools, and it was necessary that this process was led by young people themselves. “When they hold the most important symbol of Estonia, the blue, black and white flag, in their hands, students can feel the historical significance of this flag. In this way, we can contribute to the continuity of the symbols of the Estonian state,” Pae said.
The motto of the Association of Flag Guards of Estonian Schools is ‘Vexillum signum libertatis’ (‘Flag is the symbol of freedom’).
The task of the flag guards team of a school is to ceremonially carry and raise the school flag and the flag of Estonia at various ceremonies and days of national importance, both at school and at various public events. The flag guard teams follow a strict code of etiquette and symbolise the dignity of the school and the country, and carry on traditions.
One of the aims of the newly created association is to train new flag guard teams and to help school flag guard teams raise equipment and funds.
The Association of Flag Guards of Estonian Schools was founded by the flag guard teams of Gustav Adolf Grammar School, Kadriorg German Gymnasium, Kohtla-Järve Gymnasium, Tallinn Mustamäe State Upper Secondary School, Tallinn English College, Tallinn French School, Tallinn Secondary School of Science, Tallinn Co-education Gymnasium, Tallinn School No. 21 and Jakob Westholm Gymnasium.
The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a proposal to the Government of the Republic on the establishment of a temporary solidarity tax for the banking sector” (535 OE), submitted by the Estonian Centre Party Parliamentary Group, was intended to make a proposal to the Government to develop a Bill to impose a temporary solidarity tax on the Estonian banking sector for 2025–2027. According to the proposal, the tax rate would be 50 per cent of the annual profit of the bank and the funds collected would be used to fund social and educational projects as well as infrastructure and environmentally sustainable initiatives in Estonia.
Andre Hanimägi took part in the debate on behalf of the Social Democratic Party Group and Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski on behalf of the Reform Party Group, as well as Igor Taro from Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group and Lauri Laats from the Estonian Centre Party Parliamentary Group.
A majority vote of the members of the Riigikogu was needed for the Resolution to be passed. 10 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the Resolution. Thus the Resolution was rejected.
The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Formation of the Riigikogu committee of investigation to investigate the facts relating to the termination of the activities of Nordica” (543 OE), submitted by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Parliamentary Group, that was on the agenda was not deliberated at the sitting because the presenter of the draft Resolution was absent.
The interpellators wanted to know why the education agreement had failed to be concluded.
Kallas explained that, probably for the first time in the history of Estonia, there had been such a large number of people around the table who were responsible for the provision and quality of general education in Estonia, the future generations of teachers, the salary and working conditions of teachers, the school network and all that. They had actually started to negotiate about what they should do in Estonia so that teachers are not overburdened, so that young teachers want to work in schools, so that they can sustainably ensure future generations of teachers, so that teachers are motivated, so that they get a career model that shows them the perspective of how a career can actually be made in this profession. “It was the first time that we negotiated with a large number of parties, sitting at such a large table, for nine months,” Kallas said.
She added that, even if the education agreement did not have the signatures of some local governments, the process itself had been a great lesson for all parties about how difficult it was to manage education in Estonia. “Because our field of education is divided into the spheres of responsibilities of local governments, private schools and the state,” Kallas noted.
“Despite the fact that Tallinn’s signature is not on this education agreement, starting from this school year, the city of Tallinn is implementing all the items that have been agreed upon in the education agreement,” Kallas stated. She explained that Tallinn was reducing the number of students in its class sets in order to reduce the workload of teachers. Tallinn is reducing the number of contact lessons for teachers in order to reduce the burden of teachers. “In other words, all the steps concerning the reduction of the burden of teachers about which we finally agreed upon in the education agreement are being taken today by the City of Tallinn,” Kallas said. She noted that, in fact, the education agreement was being implemented. “Despite the fact that the city of Tallinn refused to sign it for political reasons,” Kallas stated.
According to Kallas, local governments had admitted that they lacked the financial means to meet the conditions of the education agreement. “If the state gives more money, if the 2026 budget shows that there will be an increase in the differentiation fund, then they will start to fulfil the conditions of the education agreement and they will also agree to sign the education agreement on an ongoing basis after that,” Kallas explained.
“If we want to solve the problem of new generations of teachers in Estonia in the long term, we will have to switch to the form of collective agreements regarding teachers’ salaries. In other words, Estonia will have to introduce the Nordic model where teachers can have confidence about their salary agreements at least two or three years in advance, because this ensures that teacher’s profession is an option. Today we have financial agreements for one year at a time,” Kallas said. She referred to the fact that the State Budget Act did not allow the state to assume legal obligations regarding subsidies for a longer period than one year. “The teachers’ salary in the state budget is a subsidy to local governments,” Kallas admitted. She added that the funds that were to be paid to teachers at state-maintained schools through the Ministry of Education constituted the only budget item where teachers’ salary was not a subsidy. Under this item, it is allowed to legally assume obligations for a longer term than just one year.
In financial terms, the funds to manage basic schools, including teachers’ salary funds, are allocated to the revenue basis of local governments. “In such a case, the money is in the revenue base of the local governments, and in such a case, the local government representing basic school teachers, the state representing upper secondary school teachers, and private schools representing private school teachers are negotiating a collective agreement with teachers. And the teachers’ trade union is on the other side,” Kallas explained.
She expressed the hope that a large number of municipalities would actually begin to implement those agreements. “Amendments to the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act will soon come to the Riigikogu, and with them, the career model for teachers will be put in place,” the Minister said.
“The career model will lay down much clearer rules on what kind of support a teacher needs at different stages of their career, what responsibilities a teacher has in the school where they work at any stage of their career, and what their salary numbers are in terms of the minimum rate when they work in different stages of their career,” the minister said.
Kallas also replied to interpellations concerning the international cooperation of the Estonian Academy of Arts (No. 677), the ending of the funding for school psychologists’ advice line 1226 (No. 683) and the merger of schools for children with special educational needs (No. 684).
Minister of Climate Yoko Alender replied to the interpellation concerning the plans to establish an offshore industrial wind farm near the island of Saaremaa (No. 680).
Minister of Regional Affairs and Agriculture Piret Hartman replied to interpellations concerning regional representatives (No. 706) and the impact on regional policy as the train company Elron was raising ticket prices (No. 708).
Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart took the floor during the open microphone.
On Tuesday, the members of the Riigikogu plan to have meetings with Military Representative of the Permanent Representation of Estonia to NATO and EU, Major General Enno Mõts, Deputy Secretary General of NATO Radmila Shekerinska and Permanent Representative of Estonia to NATO Jüri Luik. The discussions at the meetings will focus on Europea’s military autonomy, the division of tasks between NATO and the European Union, and transatlantic cooperation.
On Wednesday, the members of the EU Affairs Committee will meet with European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius, with whom they will discuss the future of European defence, increasing defence spending, developing defence industry, construction of critical security infrastructure, cooperation between the EU and NATO and hybrid attacks against critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu Marko Mihkelson will also participate in this meeting.
The EU Affairs Committee delegation also plans to have meetings on Wednesday with Helen Kaljuläte, Ambassador of Estonia to Belgium, Sanna Laaksonen, Defence Expert of the Cabinet of Commission’s Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, as well as with Indrek Kannik, Julia Luts and Oliver Mõru, members of the Cabinet of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas. They will also meet with Kyllike Sillaste-Elling, Permanent Representative of Estonia to the EU, Marten Kokk, Deputy Permanent Representative Estonia to the EU, and Lauri Kuusing, Estonian Permanent Representative to the EU’s Political and Security Committee.
On Thursday, the members of the EU Affairs Committee will meet with Jüri Laas, Spokesperson of the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, and Matti Maasikas, Managing Director for Political Affairs at the European External Action Service, and Gábor Horváth, Deputy Director General of the European Union Military Staff. They will also have meetings with Estonian Members of the European Parliament Riho Terras and Sven Mikser.
During the first half of the week, Chair of the Finance Committee of the Riigikogu Annely Akkermann and member of the Social Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu Hele Everaus will also be in Brussels, where they will attend the Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the European Union held within the framework of the European Parliamentary Week. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu Marko Mihkelson will be in Brussels to participate in the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committees of the European Parliament and national parliaments.
According to the Chairman of the European Union Affairs Committee Peeter Tali, Estonia’s positions reinforce the will to decisively increase Europe’s defence readiness. “Estonia’s positions are based on the report by former President of Finland Sauli Niinistö and strongly support the actions of the European Union and its Member States to strengthen Europe’s civil and military preparedness. Cooperation with NATO is important for defence readiness and crisis resilience, but at the same time the European Union must avoid duplicating NATO and clearly take into account and support NATO’s collective defence needs,” Tali said.
“The development of the vital infrastructure for north-south connections, or completing the construction of the Rail Baltic railway and the Via Baltica road, has an important and time-critical key role in strengthening Europe’s civilian and military readiness. At present, Latvia, Estonia and Finland are like island states in terms of connections.”
It was pointed out at the sitting that the exchange of information and the presentation of the threat picture to decision-makers should be promoted. The EU leaders have a sense of security, but it still takes too much work and too much time to implement ideas in the Member States. Estonia believes that it is necessary to give additional impetus to various initiatives by providing guidelines to the new European Commission.
The issue of increasing crisis resilience was also addressed at the sitting. It was pointed out that military as well as hybrid, climate and pandemics threats need to be taken into account. The European Union Affairs Committee noted that it was important to deal with the prepositioning of stocks and the acquisition of the resources necessary for coping in different crises. The positions underline that it must be possible to use the EU’s common civil protection and rescue capabilities in the event of a military emergency, and that this threat must be taken into account in the prepositioning of stocks.
As regards critical and vital underwater infrastructure, the need to strengthen Estonia’s ability to respond quickly to disruptions, as well as to detain vessels that have caused damage, was highlighted. Estonia’s positions also underline the need to create a system in the European Union that would enable to rapidly repair the underwater infrastructure.
Estonia supports the actions that strengthen the EU’s readiness to prevent subversion and sabotage by hostile third countries, make it more difficult to carry out such operations, and enhance punishing for and political attribution of such activities.
The European Union Affairs Committee decided to amend Estonia’s positions and to highlight the importance of Rail Baltic and Via Baltica. Estonia believes that the promotion and financing of military mobility, both by railway and by road, plays an important role in increasing the European Union’s defence readiness.
The Committee also added a position according to which it is necessary to speed up and enhance the cooperation between Member States in order to harmonise approaches to prosecuting the owners of vessels that have damaged underwater infrastructure and compensating for the damage caused.
The positions of the Government regarding strengthening Europe’s civilian and military readiness were presented by National Security and Defence Coordination Director of the Government Office Erkki Tori and Director for European Union Affairs at the Government Office Katrin Juhandi.
According to the explanatory memorandum to the Bill, the purpose of the amendments is to ensure that, in the event the Riigikogu decides to amend the Constitution, it will be possible to form the electoral districts after the constitutional amendment has entered into force.
The Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (544 SE), initiated by Isamaa Parliamentary Group, stipulates that electoral districts will be formed not later than on the 60th day before the election day, and the council will distribute the mandates between electoral districts based on the number of voters according to the population register data as of 15 July of the election year.
Under the current Act, electoral districts are formed not later than on the 90th day before the election day and the mandates are distributed based on the information as of 1 June.
Ants Frosch from Isamaa Parliamentary Group, Priit Lomp from the Social Democratic Party Parliamentary Group and Vadim Belobrovtsev from the Estonian Centre Party Group took the floor during the debate.
The Centre Party Group moved to reject the Bill. Four members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 49 voted against. Thus, the motion was not supported, and the first reading was concluded.
After the sitting, members of the Riigikogu are planning to form the Republic of Georgia Support Group on the initiative of Member of the Riigikogu Lauri Laats and the Estonian language Support Group on the initiative of Member of the Riigikogu Ando Kiviberg.
Chair of the Finance Committee Annely Akkermann, Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee Andrei Korobeinik and members of the Finance Committee Marek Reinaas, Aivar Sõerd and Mart Võrklaev explained that the economic downturn had strongly affected the competitiveness of Estonian companies.
Akkermann said that in fiscal policy, Estonia was implementing measures to increase the revenue base, limit the growth of budgetary expenditure, and improve the balance between revenues and expenditure.
“The budget will be significantly affected by the increase in defence spending, which is currently at 3 percent, but we are moving towards 5 percent,” Akkermann pointed out. She added that the projected budget deficit was 3 percent.
“The main objective of fiscal policy in the coming years is to reduce the deficit. Estonia’s budget expenditure is to a very large extent indexed, or linked to the growth of GDP. Examples of this include the financing of higher education and research, and defence spending, as well as the linking of pensions to the consumer price index, which will lead to budgetary expenditure increasing faster than the revenues. In this sense, fiscal policy needs structural reforms, in particular to reduce the impact of indexing,” Akkermann said.
According to member of the Economic Affairs Committee Andres Sutt, Estonian economy has all the prerequisites for a new technology-intensive growth cycle. Maintaining an attractive investment environment, the provision of clean energy ranging from wind energy to nuclear power, diverse access to capital for start-ups, growth companies and traditional businesses, and the availability of skilled workforce that meets the changing needs of the economy will also ensure Estonia’s economic success. In this context, people’s increased investments in the second and third pillars of the pension system have a key role in increasing the importance of capital market based financing. Sutt explained that Estonia’s economy was projected to grow by about 1.6 percent in 2025 and by about 3 percent in the following two years.
Monitoring of the economies of IMF member countries, including Estonia, is generally carried out in the context of the economic policy consultations that generally take place once a year. The common name “Article IV consultations” derives from Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement. IMF’s national cooperation partner in Estonia is Eesti Pank (Bank of Estonia), which publishes summaries of their missions, etc. on its website.
The mission team specifies the objectives, scope, details, timing and expected results of the Article IV cycle. It is interested in discussing recent macroeconomic, fiscal and financial developments, prospects, risks and policies. The mission team is interested in feedback from members of the Riigikogu committees on their analytical and policy agenda before the Article IV consultations.
As this is an interim mission of the IMF, the team will not prepare a summary statement and there will be no press conference at the end of the mission. However, the interim mission is important because it usually prepares the first version of the Article IV report, which is supplemented with additional themes and economic policy messages during the mission.
The IMF mission is headed by Vincenzo Guzzo, and the members of the delegation are Bingjie Hu, Irina Bunda and Carlos de Resende.
The International Monetary Fund discusses important economic policy issues with all member states once a year. The outcome of the consultation is a report reflecting the IMF experts’ assessment of Estonia’s economic policy.
The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Marko Mihkelson told the plenary assembly that one central principle of Estonia’s foreign policy—never again alone—was more pertinent today than at any point after our independence was restored in 1991. “In a turbulent world where force might trump justice, we can ensure our sovereignty and security by maintaining and enhancing our common allied space through active international communication. Determined, skilful, internally consistent, and democratic foreign policy is just as important for Estonia today as is directing more resources into building independent defence capabilities,” he emphasised.
As he sees it, the key issue in Estonia’s foreign policy is our contribution to restoring sustainable peace in Europe. “Ideally, this would mean Ukraine’s victory in the war against the invading aggressor and the expansion of the democratic security space in a way that would ensure not only the sovereignty of Ukraine but also Moldova, Georgia, and Belarus, and would lead to the fall of dictatorships. In other words, this would mean a conclusive end to empires in Europe. Reaching this goal would ensure Estonia’s security for at least the next generation, or maybe longer,” Mihkelson said. Yet he admitted that the international environment had only become more difficult over the last year, taking us even further from this aim.
Mihkelson said that Russia’s words and actions showed that their strategic goal was still the restoration of its empire and gaining the leading role in European security, and this was the goal it was moving towards despite heavy losses of human lives. “Ukraine is fighting and maintaining the front line not only against Russia but the whole authoritarian power of four. Intensified defence cooperation between Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China helps Moscow to hold on to the initiative and the material superiority in the war,” he said, adding that while the authoritarian forces were converging, the free world had just entered one of the most precarious periods of its history where the unity showed signs of crumbling and where the vitality of democratic institutions that ensure civil liberties was being sorely tested.
Mihkelson referred to moments in Estonian history where our fate as a nation had been decided without our own input; but hastened to add that times were different today and that we had our own place and our own voice on the international arena. “But this does not mean that challenges have disappeared. Rifts in the allied space and conflicts between great powers mean that we need to find the wisdom and determination to do our utmost to be represented and taken into account when Estonia’s sovereignty and security are at stake,” he admonished.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna said in his speech that the mood of the late 1930s can be felt around the world: the rules-based world order is under increasing pressure, autocracies are gathering strength and converging, and attempts are being made to drive wedges into democratic societies and between democracies, to amplify existing contradictions and to undermine values. He called on the democratic world to ask itself whether we would allow the threats to grow until it was too late, as was done then, or whether we would resolutely take a stand to defend our values.
“Not long ago, many European leaders admitted that they should have given more heed to the Baltic states when we warned them about the growing threat of aggression in the east. Today we tell them: listen to us now. Freedom of us all is at stake. Keeping it requires victory in Ukraine, containing the aggressive Russia for a long time, strengthening our alliances, and a more confident Europe,” he said.
Consistency will continue to be the trump card of our foreign policy. “Estonia has been right when warning about threats and calling for resolve. We have been united in making our case abroad, even when we have had heated arguments at home. If we—as a country and nation—want to emerge from these difficult times unscathed and stronger, then our unity and integrity have to be maintained,” the Minister said in his speech outlining the main directions and goals of Estonia’s foreign policy.
During the debate that followed the presentations and the questions, Kalev Stoicescu spoke for Estonia 200 Group, Eerik-Niiles Kross for the Reform Party Group, Raimond Kaljulaid for the Social Democratic Party Group, Lauri Laats and Vadim Belobrovtsev for the Centre Party Group, Urmas Reinsalu for Isamaa Group, and Anti Poolaments and Rain Epler for the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group.
The deliberation of the motion of no confidence was postponed
The President of the Riigikogu added a second item on the agenda of the sitting: a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Kristen Michal, initiated by 29 Members of the Riigikogu. Its deliberation was deferred to the agenda for tomorrow’s sitting because there was no time to start the discussion before the sitting ended today at 2 p.m.
The first reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Local Government Organisation Act (537 SE), initiated by Members of the Riigikogu Raimond Kaljulaid and Tiit Maran, was also deferred due to the end of the working hours.
Photos (Erik Peinar / Chancellery of the Riigikogu)
