"The most important thing is that cutting red tape should not in itself create more red tape. That's why it has to be considered," said Keldo.

In the summer, Minister of Justice Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) contacted ministries for feedback on proposals to reduce bureaucracy, which had been called for in the Reform-SDE-Eesti 200 coalition agreement.

With the appeal to cut red tape, Pakosta aimed to reduce oversight of small and medium-sized enterprises and clarify distinctions in draft EU transposition legislation between narrow adoption and necessary adjustments.

However, according to Secretary General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications Ahti Kuningas, Pakosta's plan to cut red tape focuses more on restricting lawmaking and will in fact create more paperwork.

According to Keldo, Kuningas' views cannot be said to oppose the justice minister's proposals. "Actually, there is no opposition as such, but the issue is that the government's aim is essentially to reduce bureaucracy. It is there that it must be considered which objectives best support the ideas the secretary general has outlined. If we are talking about this 'one in, one out' objective, then we also have to look at what this actually means in terms of the administrative burden. After all, the ultimate aim is to reduce the administrative burden on businesses, not to over-regulate," Keldo said.

Keldo said that the Ministry of Justice had asked for an initial opinion and feedback, and that now it is time to establish, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, how exactly a reduction in bureaucracy could be agreed upon.

"What obligations different operators have today, what obligations can we do away with. The substance of this 'one in, one out' is that often the different regulations in the legislation are not equivalent in any way, or often when a new regulation or activity comes into action in a new area, it does not mean that it can be stopped precisely in the previous area."

"In fact, you still have to look in detail at what activities we are doing, how we are reducing the reporting, just as we have agreed to reduce the reporting burden through data standardization," Keldo said.

"There is much more to these activities than just one bill in, one bill out. That is the essence of the response the secretary general has sent," he added.

"If we simply start to restrict legislation, but it does not actually reduce the administrative burden in any way, we will not get any closer to the ultimate goal. In other words, restricting legislation must be in line with reducing the substantive administrative burden," said Keldo.

Keldo stressed, however, that he is certainly prepared to support limiting the proliferation of unnecessary legislation.

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