Reform, SDE, and Eesti 200 kicked off the negotiations on Monday by discussing economic issues, such as increasing competitiveness.

Kallas told "Uudis+" the parties are not drafting a completely new agreement, but an appendix to the existing document negotiated last spring.

"These are mostly related to the state of public finances. However, since it has deteriorated in the meantime according to forecasts, we will have to make new decisions there. As these are very big decisions and very important decisions, we need a new agreement there," she said.

Kallas said there are no "major disagreements" or big differences between the delegations.

"In general, it is understandable that to increase the competitiveness of the economy or to develop competitiveness, certain steps have to be taken on the part of the government, and these steps have in themselves been on the table of the existing government for a long time – at least for a year. It is just that we have not decided at the time. Now we have revisited all these issues to see whether we still have a political agreement," the vice chairman said.

Kallas noted that the Eesti 200 have been waiting for six months to discuss support measures for large investors in the government.

The minister noted that disagreements had arisen so far as issues important for Eesti 200 have not been discussed by the government. "So far, the disagreement has been that the government has not been able to get these things on the table. Now we have agreed to negotiate them and move towards them. This was an important issue for us."

Kallas could not say why these topics had not been discussed so far: "Maybe there hasn't been the political will to discuss it so much."

The vice chairman said decisions on cutbacks will only come when all matters have been agreed upon.

She said many economic activities do not affect the budget and can already be negotiated. "In terms of the competitiveness of the Estonian economy, one thing is inflation, of course, which has had a very strong impact on our input prices in the economy, but we still have the issue of labor shortages, labor skills, and we have also discussed talent policy today. We discussed the part of industrial policy that is attracting major investors to Estonia and creating favorable conditions for them here so that major investments would come to Estonia."

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!