"The reduction of the response deadline for official letters is a necessary action, a so-called 'low-hanging fruit,'" stated Arto Aas, the CEO of the Estonian Employers' Confederation.

Currently, officials are required to respond to official letters and requests for explanations within 30 days. However, in cases of complexity, this deadline can be extended up to two months.

With the new draft bill, the Ministry of Justice aims to set a 15-day response deadline. However, the possibility to extend this deadline to two months in exceptional cases will remain.

According to Aas, timely communication is not only in the interest of organizations representing businesses, such as the Employers' Confederation, but it also concerns all Estonian companies and the wider economy. "It is important to adhere to these deadlines. Today, this is not always done, meaning that letters sent by companies and business associations either go unanswered or receive responses weeks later," Aas explained, highlighting the importance of the draft bill.

He added that this is a necessary change, and more such changes are needed: "Estonia is a small country, and we should decisively curb the bureaucracy that stifles entrepreneurship."

The Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities does not support shortening the response deadline. "Even today, the majority of official letters and requests for explanations are responded to faster than 30 calendar days, meaning there is no delay in responding to inquiries," explained the association's executive director, Veikko Luhalaid, justifying their position.

According to a study conducted in 2017-2018, the average response time in government agencies is 22 days.

However, according to the study, the city of Tallinn was able to respond to 77 percent of the official letters and requests for explanations submitted to it within 14 days, and in about 6 percent of cases, the city needed more than 30 days to respond.

According to Luhalaid, a shorter response deadline could cause problems for local governments, whose responsibilities are very broad. Increased workload might create a need for additional staff, which is a concern for smaller municipalities where only one official is responsible for the area.

"In the end, the proposed change could lead to the opposite situation, where the time to review inquiries lengthens, the substantive quality of responses suffers, and there is also the question of what impact the proposed change will have on local government budgets," Luhalaid noted.

Aas clarified that shortening deadlines should result from necessary internal reorganizations, not from hiring additional people.

Justice and Digital Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta (Eesti 200) said at the government's press conference on August 22 that they are attempting to pass the draft bill in the Riigikogu for the third time.

Pakosta explained that the fear that 15 days is too short a time to respond is no longer justified: "Just as a reminder, the 30 days originate from a time – I still remember this – when a letter was typed up on a typewriter, taken to another building or office for someone to sign, then to a third place for stamping and finally it was put into an envelope. That's where the 30 days come from."

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