At a press conference on Friday, the Ministry of the Interior revealed a draft law that would regulate shelters in Estonia and require new and existing structures to incorporate a functional shelter.

"To protect our people from military threats, we must act now to solve the security situation in our region. Shelter is critical for civilian safety when the enemy attacks civilians, not just military targets, as the Russians have done in Ukraine for the past two years," Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets (SDE) said.

New buildings over 1,200 square meters must have shelters, according to the draft. These include residential, hotel, catering, office, commercial, service, entertainment, educational, health, and other public buildings. At the moment, Estonia has about 15,000 such buildings. The size of the shelter must be at least 2 percent of the area of the building.

About 150 public buildings over 10,000 square meters are also subject to the requirement.

The cost of building a shelter depends on the size of the space and ranges from €1,600 per square meter (m²) to €3,200 m². The larger the shelter, the lower the price per square meter.

Experience in Finland shows that the construction of a shelter adds on average 1 to 2 percent to the construction price.

Technical requirements for shelters will be developed in cooperation with experts and associations. They will be based on the requirements in Finland and the previous requirements in Sweden (Sweden dropped the requirement 10 years ago).

Shelters can normally be used for other purposes, such as parking. The shelter will be prepared for use if the state orders it. In Finland, the time limit is 72 hours.

However, in Estonia it is not possible to properly install granite rock structures, which are common in Finland.

Interior proposes to impose requirements on existing buildings as well

For existing buildings, guidelines are being developed to evaluate shelter options and increase shelter security. Rooms with solid walls and no windows, such as basements, underground parking lots, and bathrooms, can be used as shelters.

Existing buildings will have to meet the requirements in stages: assess the sheltering potential of the existing building and, if sheltering is available, draw up a sheltering plan. If there is no shelter, the nearest available public shelter must be identified. In this case, no shelter plan is required.

The shelter plan describes where shelter will be provided in the building, how the shelter will be prepared, and how the shelter will be strengthened, such as by covering basement windows and supporting ceilings. The timeframe for providing a minimum level of shelter is two years.

Further strengthening of the shelter is the responsibility of the building owner. The Rescue Board will develop guidelines and model solutions for each type of apartment building to maximize shelter.

There are more than 210 public shelters for around 160,000 people in Estonia

With the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine, the Rescue Service was tasked with organizing shelters for people in crisis. As part of this, it began marking public shelters and developing guidance materials.

At present, 210 public shelters for about 160,000 people have been marked.

Under the draft law, the organization of shelters, including the implementation and monitoring of measures, will be the responsibility of the rescue services.

Terminology was also clarified at the press conference

A fortified shelter or bunker (Estonian: "varjend") is a building or part of a building specially constructed for sheltering. Its construction meets the requirements and its protective capacity is measurable. Such shelters protect against dust, blast, explosion, contaminated air and flying objects..

A shelter or sheltering place (Estonian: "varjumiskoht") is a structure or part of a structure adapted for sheltering that protects against dust, blast and flying objects.

Public shelter means a marked place in a public space where a person in the street can quickly take refuge.

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