Allow me to present a few examples of this from Ida-Viru County and the past month alone. The Unemployment Insurance Fund is closing its offices in Kiviõli and Sillamäe, while the Health Board will axe its public health laboratory in the latter, with sample testing moving to the capital. The Ministry of Justice wants to do away with the Jõhvi courthouse, so what that its fancy new building was completed only a little over a decade ago.

Similar news is coming from most counties. At the same time, the headquarters of ministries and agencies located in the capital will in most cases be cutting only a few jobs.

In a situation where every seventh unemployed person lives in Ida-Viru County, with no real reduction in sight, the Unemployment Insurance Fund's presence should grow instead of waning. In a situation where Tallinn has among the lowest unemployment rates in the country, why should the agency's headquarters be located in the capital in the first place? Ida-Viru County would be the proper place for it as the region where it has the most work to do.

If the managers of the Unemployment Insurance Fund lived and worked in Ida-Viru County, they would have a better feel for many of the problems in the area, especially compared to an office building in Tallinn many employees of which never even see an unemployed person. It could also be critically reevaluated whether every analyst, methodologist, lawyer, press representative, green sustainability and other kind of specialist is desperately needed. It is possible that there is much more room for austerity in the headquarters, compared to so-called field offices.

It's humanly understandable that it is easier for agency headquarters to order closures and layoffs in branches that are removed from the capital. The emotional connection is weaker there, compared to people one sees in the office every day. If ministries only give agencies cost-cutting targets and leave the rest up to them, the axe is bound to fall in remote regions.

The more decision-making moves to the capital, the weaker the decision-makers' ties to the reality and people in different regions. And ministries keep churning out documents that make developing local life more difficult. One good example of this is Alutaguse Municipality where the Ministry of Climate wants to expand the territory of a national park, while the Ministry of Defense is laying down national defense restrictions.

That public transport is free for Tallinn residents and paid every where else has become the norm in Estonia.

Cutting public sector jobs in the regions will result in loss of other jobs. Officials moving to the capital means that their hairdressers, store clerks and their children's teachers will sooner or later be out of a job as well. Another result is abandoned buildings, but at least it might be possible to apply for support from the central government for demolishing them.

The results of recent regional policy are reflected in fresh statistics on relative poverty rates in Estonia's counties. They're highest in Virumaa (Ida-Viru and Lääne-Viru counties – ed.) and Southeast Estonia. The worst thing is that, unlike in the rest of Estonia, the share of people living in poverty is not shrinking but growing there.

Minister of Regional Affairs Piret Hartman (SDE) told Põhjarannik that she took the job this summer in order to roll back regional inequality, but other members of the government do not seem to be taking this goal overly seriously.

Rather, it seems that the post of regional minister is there to make it look like there is relevant policy. However, this kind of an attitude can only bring seeming results.

Politicians often say, when it comes to Ida-Viru County, that people in the region should not complaint too loud as they are benefiting from the Just Transition Fund. By the way, this was one reason why Ida-Viru's regional program was cut more than others this year.

The Just Transition Fund will make quite a few useful things possible in Ida-Viru County. But we must not forget that it offers only partial compensation for the socioeconomic wounds inflicted on the region by political and ideological hastiness in phasing out the oil shale industry.

Politicians have set goals by when oil shale needs to be a thing of the past, while it would have been ever better had they also set a goal of replacing the region's economy with something else. The latter part of the equation remains unsolved.

Figuratively speaking, Ida-Viru has had one of its feet amputated to reduce its footprint, while the Just Transition Fund now offers support for toe prosthesis.

The ruling Reform Party's election program reads: "Estonia's development must be balanced and cover all regions." It is something we must constantly remind ourselves of. Plans to redraw electoral districts and mandates are already making the rounds. Should more than half of the Riigikogu be elected in Tallinn and the neighboring municipalities in the future, regional policy won't even be a fringe hobby.

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