"I would like to say in cooperation with the minister of education that the Institute of Estonian Language will definitely continue operating within its current boundaries — it is a research and development institution involved in the Estonian language," Lukas said at Thursday's government press conference, adding that there was no reason to believe that these functions would be transferred to the Language Board being established.

"The future Language Board will be involved in language policy, and those fields that broadly need to be taken under control, which we currently have not been able to handle — Estonian is being flushed out of the service sector, and there are problems in higher education and research," he continued. "The Language Inspectorate function will of course remain as well."

But the role of the Institute of the Estonian Language certainly will not be taken away from it, he added.

Speaking to ERR on Tuesday, EKI director Tõnu Tender expressed concern that plans for the establishment of the Language Board recently completed at the Ministry of Education and Research foresee the transferring of the majority of tasks currently handled by EI to the new board.

According to Lukas, the fact that the Ministry of Education and Research is planning to establish the Language Board is very much commendable. He added that the government would discuss the matter at its Thursday cabinet meeting.

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