Negotiating parties: Lowest incomes to benefit, budget discipline to continue
The Center Party, the Social Democrats, and IRL announced after another round of talks on Saturday that they had reached a basic agreement in terms of the coming coalition’s economic policy.
Still, chairmen Jüri Ratas, Jevgeni Ossinovski, and Margus Tsahkna told journalists present that they would make their agreement public only once this particular subject had been clarified among the negotiating parties.
The only thing they unanimously promised was that the income of those receiving the lowest pay would improve.
Center Party chairman Jüri Ratas said that the planned changes would certainly influence incomes by more than just a few euros a month. It was the intention of the new coalition to increase the social security of Estonians, Ratas emphasized.
IRL chairman Margus Tsahkna confirmed that the new coalition would continue to follow the established budget discipline. Though the new government would likely borrow as well, it wouldn’t be to cover the administration’s running costs, Tsahkna said, but only for very particular investments.
Tsahkna added that they were revisiting state companies as well and looking at all those enterprises the state didn’t need in strategic terms. Minor stakes would be taken to the stock market, and capital raised from the private sector. The chairmen didn’t say which enterprises would be affected.
The parties to the negotiations once again took the opportunity to stress that they were not working on a lengthy and detailed coalition agreement, but much rather on a series of principles of an open government with as broad an approach as possible.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn