A business owners' council is being established under the Government Office which will be tasked with advising the government on which requirements and regulations can be reduced, said State Secretary Keit Kasemets.

"No detailed plan is being drawn up," Kasemets explained. "Rather, regular meetings will be held, where proposals will emerge and can also be implemented immediately, step by step. These will be taking place over a longer period of time. We at the Government Office have also contacted the Estonian Employers' Confederation (ETK), which is currently gathering business owners' proposals, and we will definitely be incorporating those proposals as well."

He noted that interest from business owners is very high, and that a number of proposals have already been received and are awaiting review.

According to ETK CEO Hando Sutter, employers had previously already begun collecting suggestions for reducing bureaucracy, independent of the government's plans.

"Our members and the economy in general have considered [bureaucracy] as one of the main obstacles to economic growth and the ability to gain new momentum," Sutter said.

The ETK has previously called on its members to identify excessive regulations and administrative burden, even creating a separate platform for this purpose.

Employers are collecting information regarding excessive regulation through April 4, after which the organization plans to structure and compile the collected material to make it more readable and understandable.

This will then be formulated as goals for change, which had been planned to be submitted to the government.

State secretary: Important to involve interested parties

According to Sutter, issues span a range of different sectors.

"There are some that are related to laws," he said. "Perhaps one of the most discussed is everything related to planning and that side of things. Then there are regulations where the overregulation is clearly evident — there are quite striking examples of these."

The ETK chief noted that possibly a category unto itself is related to the Environmental Board.

"It's often interesting when companies want to make some kind of changes or developments in connection with reducing their environmental footprint, and then the bottleneck lies in the environmental permits side, and the Environmental Board's capacity to process those permits."

It is still unclear which business owners specifically will start advising the government. Kasemets noted that this group of people may change over time.

"It's crucial to have different sectors and experiences represented, and there's no reason to worry that anyone's proposals or ideas will be sidelined," the state secretary emphasized. "At the initial meetings, it will be crucial to discuss how to ensure that all interested parties and those wishing to participate are sufficiently involved in the process."

More detailed plans for the government's collaboration with business owners will be unveiled in the coming days.

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