State Secretary: Outgoing Government Fulfilled 90% of Promises
The government has taken credit for partially or completely fulfilling 90 percent of the 321 promises the coalition made in 2007, although the opposition disputes this.
In a report on the government program, Secretary of State Heiki Loot wrote that the government program, which was assembled before the recession, was able to withstand an approximately 20 percent decline in GDP, a sharply rising unemployment rate and the Social Democrats' departure from the coalition.
The report said the fiscal and monetary policy program was almost completely met while the political goals of defense and education were fulfilled up to 90 percent, according to ETV.
"I consider most important the job market reform, the new Employment Contracts Act and the changes in the basic school and upper secondary school system. For a long time no one was able to do it, but we succeeded," said Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.
The milestones set in family, social, health and wage policies were among the most elusive, due to the lack of funds during the economic crisis.
The opposition questioned the reasonability of the whole report since during the economic downturn the government acted completely out of line with the program.
"Looking at the program point by point we can find that very few promises have been completely met," said Kadri Simson, Deputy Chairman of the opposition's Centre Party.
"For example, the government promised to reduce taxes or at least leave them the same, however both taxes and VAT increased," said Simson, adding that the state was also supposed to stand for a balanced regional development when in fact they aggravated the situation of local government significantly.
Ingrid Teesalu