National Museum Funding Decisions Still Hanging
Several government officials have said that the construction of the National Museum will go ahead even without financial support from the European Union. But construction has yet to begin, and word has it that there are plans to cut down the construction budget after all.
"I have heard this in a number of different rumors, but no one has spoken to me specifically,” said museum director Krista Aru, who opposes any major changes to the planned museum's design.
The Cabinet is set to decide this Thursday whether it will include the National Museum in its list of investment projects, reported ERR radio. In the event of affirmation, the board of the Cultural Endowment is expected, at a meeting later this month, to concentrate all of its funding on the museum. That would then give State Real Estate the green light to announce the building procurement.
If all that were to happen, museum director Krista Aru said construction would start next summer and the building could be ready by 2016.
Several high-ranking officials, led by the minister of culture, have given their support to the initiative, calling the museum a symbol of national importance, and refusing to compromise the integrity of the current design for financial reasons.
But one problem is that one of the coalition parties, IRL, has been less enthusiastic, with priorities lying elsewhere.
"There are many different projects in the investment plan. IRL is no way against the construction of any single building, but we must do it responsibly and not on the account of the future generations, and this goes for the National Museum as well,” said IRL Secretary General Priit Sibul. “We need to look at what kind of building we are erecting for the future. If the post-construction maintenance expenses of the existing project multiply, then I think that it is not something that we should be doing right now.”
In March, the European Commission rejected a bid for EU funding to build the National Museum, saying that it would be too expensive and that in its currently planned location in Raadi it wouldn't collect enough revenue.
Ott Tammik