The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (Kultuurkapital) operates simply, clearly, with a minimum of bureaucracy, and is extremely cost-effective.

The mechanism is valued both at home and abroad. It is composed of experts from various cultural fields, and distributes over €20 million annually to a wealth of different projects and to creative individuals too. This funding is automatically allocated from tax revenues, without any intermediate political decision.

Every two years, the endowment is refreshed with experts who thoroughly understand their fields and know precisely which artists, events, or works need support.

The Cultural Endowment operates simply and independently from political interests, under its own regulations, and the funds it distributes play a significant role in the overall finances of the culture sector. This makes the Cultural Endowment one of the most vital sources of income for many creative individuals in Estonia.

The most significant change being made this week at the cultural policy level is fundamental: In addition to the existing system of tax-free scholarships and grants, the Cultural Endowment will now have the opportunity to pay creative workers a creative salary together with all social guarantees.

This will help to alleviate a socially distressing problem, namely the concern freelance creative individuals have about the availability of social guarantees.

Under the current system, sadly, too many of our creative individuals would face poverty on retirement, as they have not been able to meet the minimum 15 years of employment necessary for the state old-age pension, during which time social security taxes would have been paid.

Furthermore, people in their prime creative years currently do not contribute, via Cultural Endowment scholarships, to the availability of healthcare services for themselves or for their family members.

Indeed it is of course convenient to think in terms of "getting more money now," but I would like to believe that our society is mature enough to understand that, in the long term, it's more beneficial to provide a fishing rod, rather than just a fish.

So why did the coalition decide to take this step now?

First, because we pledged in the coalition agreement to improve the social security system for creative individuals; and second (for reasons relating to the first), the funds automatically deposited into the Cultural Endowment account from alcohol and tobacco excise taxes and gambling tax rose as a result of tax changes last summer.

The sector has been discussing the fundamental necessity of this amendment to the Cultural Endowment Act for many years. Hiking gambling and excise tax revenues provide a good opportunity without disrupting the current operational logic of the Cultural Endowment sectors, since starting from this year, an additional €2 million will be deposited in the Cultural Endowment's budget. This will also continue to grow by several hundred thousand euros annually in the coming years.

With these legislative amendments, the government has laid the foundation for a potentially society-wide paradigm shift; creativity is work, and working people must receive fair remuneration, and support those who cannot yet do so or no longer can do so.

If a large portion of a creative individual's income over the years has consisted of tax-free scholarships, the outcome is that social guarantees are either entirely absent or that talented authors must find a permanent job which provides a steady income to obtain them. Often, this means working in a completely different field in tandem with their main creative activity, resulting in enforced fragmentation

Naturally, this legislative amendment doesn't fully solve the livelihood issues facing Estonia's freelance creative individuals, but it offers a significant step and one which allows us to provide several hundred creative individuals, who had previously lacked a social security net, the opportunity to secure health insurance protection, to accumulate pension qualifying years, or to receive the necessary salary for parental leave.

In ensuring access to social guarantees for creative individuals, this measure addresses a crucial gap in the support system for those working in the cultural sector. By allowing creative workers to qualify for health insurance, ti accumulate pension rights, and to benefit from parental leave, the amendment acknowledges and treats creative work as a legitimate profession deserving of the same protections and benefits offered in other fields. This advancement not only enhances the social security for creative individuals, but also reinforces the value of creative work within society.

I stress that the underlying logic of the Cultural Endowment remains the same, and we have agreed that the amounts paid out as creative work support, or the net sums that reach the creative individual "in hand," will not fall.

Furthermore, endowments should aim at larger creative salaries which would provide creative individuals with a longer-term sense of security. In other words, whereas previously a creator asked for, and received, a creative work support of, for example, a thousand euros, they would continue to receive the same amount in the future, but with taxes, unemployment insurance, and social security contributions already deducted from it.

Endowments will continue primarily to support strong and needed creative work. If this change leads to several hundred creative individuals having better access to medical services and a higher pension in the future, then the change will have fulfilled its aims. Hopefully, we will no longer have to ask any actor, artist, writer, or film director over and again: "You have a nice artistic hobby, but what is your real job?"

Another important amendment to the Cultural Endowment Act is less radical, but no less important. A section has been added to the legislation that allows, given the availability of free resources and without affecting the completion of existing cultural buildings on the state's list, the support of additional significant buildings within the cultural sector.

With the current tax changes, the Cultural Endowment has the financial means, yet the existing law did not allow this money to be utilized.

Consequently, in addition to providing new opportunities for creative individuals, we will also gain flexibility in investing in cultural buildings, enabling our creative individuals to operate in a modern working environment.

The decision on which object to support from the Cultural Endowment funds will be made by the Cultural Endowment's board, at the proposal of the Minister of Culture and with the approval of the Riigikogu's Cultural Affairs Committee.

This means any new potential building will be thoroughly considered, involving the Ministry of Culture's knowledge of required investments, broad political inclusion, and the view of the Cultural Endowment's board; which consists of representatives from the cultural sector.

Updating the Cultural Endowment Act without changing its foundational principles has been a bold decision, which provides the cultural sector with greater resources and better tools to advocate for its development.

Additionally, it allows for more flexible investment in cultural objects needing construction, and where events which interpret and define our society take place.

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