Parliament Reviews Estonia 2020 Strategy
Parliament reviewed Estonia’s EU competitiveness strategy for 2020, which will establish a direction for fiscal policy reforms and new economic targets.
"It’s very important that Parliament gets involved early on with Estonia’s competitiveness strategy for 2020,” said EU Affairs Committee Chairman Marko Mihkelson.
Introducing the preparations and targets, Government Office Strategy Director Keit Kasemets said there are two primary challenges: production and employment.
By 2020, the plan aims to increase production to 80 percent of the EU average and to enlarge exports on the global market to 0.11 percent. To boost entrepreneurship, the strategy aims for research and development investment to increase to 3 percent of GDP.
The document proposes long-term structural reforms in the energy sector, including raising renewable energy to 25 percent of consumption and stabilizing consumption at the 2010 level, as energy consumption is otherwise projected to increase 15 percent by 2020.
Estonia and other EU nations must present their status reports to the European Commission by November 12. The competitiveness strategy must be confirmed by the national government at the latest by April 2011.