Kuningas, who is also soon to become secretary general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, confirmed that Eesti Energia's supervisory board will meet next week to discuss the applications submitted for the role. According to Kuningas however, it is not yet certain whether the number of shortlisted candidates will be reduced to five or 10, for the next stage of the process.

"We are currently in the process of selecting the shortlisted candidates. It is too early to say how many we will come up with," Kuningas said.

"We are looking for a competent leader, who may be found internally or externally," Kuningas said.

Asked whether it is possible that Elering CEO Taavi Veskimägi will also be in the running as the result of a targeted search, Kuningas replied, that the company's new leader will not be chosen according to external guidelines.

"Claims that the (supervisory) board has directions from somewhere are actually an insult to the board," Said Kuningas. "We have a nomination committee that selects members impartially and does its due diligence. At the moment, it is too early to say who (the successful) person will be," he said.

Kuningas added, that Eesti Energia's supervisory board would like to confirm its new chief by the New Year, with the successful candidate set to officially take up the post from April 1.

Eesti Energia received 27 applications for the position of board chaoir by the open competition deadline. A targeted search conducted in parallel was expected to increase the number of potential candidates to as many as 50.

On September 14, Eesti Energia's supervisory board announced that it had decided not to extend current board chair Hando Sutter's contract, with his mandate set to expire on March 31, 2023, after eight years at the helm.

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