The party's board confirmed the delegation on Tuesday, with the members being: Party leader and Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets, Health Minister Riina Sikkut, Regional Affairs Minister Piret Hartman, MPs Reili Rand, Priit Lomp, Anti Allas, Tanel Kiik and Helmen Kütt, Mayor of Tallinn Jevgeni Ossinovski, and former Nõmme district elder Lauri Paeveer.

The key topics for SDE in the upcoming negotiations will be: Security, housing and employment, Läänemets said – with the issue of rentals and loan guarantees and support for younger families being among the main housing aspects.

"The issue of housing accessibility is directly linked to the creation of well-paid jobs throughout Estonia," Läänemets said, "ensuring that living in rural areas is just as viable as it is in the major towns."

SDE backs fair large investment subsidies in the regions, and the faster adoption of green energy, he added.

Prioritizing defense investments, establishing a crisis reserve and pursuing the "drone wall" initiative were other policies Läänemets mentions, in addition to retaining those agreements already contained in the Reform-SDE-Eesti 200 agreement cut in April 2023.

Since that time, SDE's position has strengthened as the party now has 14 Riigikogu seats with the new members it gained earlier on this year – one of them at the expense of Eesti 200. Reform, too, picked up one of the Center Party defectors, giving the existing coalition lineup 65 seats at the 101-seat Riigikogu.

Without Eesti 200, a Reform-SDE coalition would have only a slim majority, however, of 52 seats.

SDE has said it wants to change the distribution of ministerial portfolios from the current set-up.

"The practice in the Riigikogu is that whoever has the most seats usually gets the prime minister's chair. Whoever has the second largest group will perhaps get something else," Läänemets said Monday morning, adding that the topic has not yet been discussed.

"These numbers have changed in the meantime, and I think that's something that we will certainly be discussing whether or not we are going to make some changes there," he went on.

Continuing with the same Reform-SDE-Eesti 200 lineup remains the plan, Läänemets said, adding that a national defense tax is likely to be introduced in the future.

The talks remain informal until Kaja Kallas steps down mid-month, and negotiations can become official after that.

Kallas was last week nominated as candidate for the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy position, to replace the outgoing Josep Borrell, and following much speculation on whether she would be returning to Brussels/Strasbourg after last month's European elections.

A hearing on July 18 will be followed by a decision on whether Kallas is appointed as next EU high representative – effectively the EU's foreign minister.

The Reform Party has said that she will stay in office up to and including the NATO summit in Washington on July 9-11, and step down after that.

The process of picking her successor begins right after that, and Kristen Michal, current climate minister, has been chosen by the Reform Party board as the prime ministerial candidate to replace her.

The Estonian Constitution requires that a change of prime minister be accompanied by new coalition negotiations and an agreement, even if this involves the same parties as had been in office up to that point.

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