The coalition agreement of the incoming government states, "For the sake of efficiency, we will merge state institutions and agencies. This will reduce the staff and costs of government agencies by a fifth."

The planned mergers will be discussed further as coalition negotiations continue. "A two-year policy document will be created outlining specific actions. This will also include decisions on merging certain agencies. At the same time, we will work with a business advisory council to reduce various regulations and processes," Keldo told ERR.

"We are talking about various central government agencies, such as the Environmental Board, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) and the Patent Office," Keldo added.

"We have a Patent Office and we also have the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (EIS). If we talk about developing higher value-added products and services, patents play a crucial role. At the same time, we see that EIS' mission is to collaborate with businesses to create an environment that fosters innovation, new intellectual property and patents. This is one specific example of how costs could be saved while also improving efficiency," Keldo explained.

According to Keldo, the review of activities will also affect agencies such as the Labor Inspectorate and the Environmental Board. However, he noted that merging the Environmental Board with another institution has not been discussed.

"However, as an example, it has been pointed out that the Environmental Board has a vast number of supervisory functions and regulations under its authority. These should clearly be reduced. If that happens, the Environmental Board will have the opportunity to cut back on resources, whether in terms of personnel or funding. But at this point, it is too early to say whether the board will definitely be merged with another institution or how many employees could be reduced. First, a thorough review needs to be conducted and an agreement must be reached on which activities the Environmental Board will no longer need to perform," Keldo said.

The coalition agreement also states, "We will create a single, integrated state IT center and delegate as many support services as possible to the private sector."

Keldo explained that this means consolidating IT support systems for various public services. "Ministries and their subordinate agencies currently use different departments or service providers for IT support. Our information and support systems are fragmented. To improve efficiency and get a clearer overall picture, discussions have already taken place about establishing a single IT center to provide support services," Keldo said.

Education, culture and healthcare issues, which are not covered in the coalition agreement, will be addressed in additional negotiations set to begin next week, according to Keldo.

The leader of the Eesti 200 party, Kristina Kallas, said at Thursday's government press conference that an education policy working group will meet in Tartu next Friday.

"Other ministers will soon provide updates on the progress of negotiations. The coalition talks are not over; they are just beginning on key issues such as healthcare, infrastructure and public transport and foreign policy — though no major reforms are expected there, fundamental questions still need to be discussed. Additionally, defense policy, education, cultural and sports funding, economic policies and internal security will all be on the agenda," Kallas said.

"The goal is to reach clear agreements on policy reforms in each sector so that the people of Estonia have a clear understanding of the direction in which the country is heading in these areas. This will ensure confidence in the government's functioning and its commitment to implementing these reform plans," she added.

"We are introducing a slightly newer political culture, where we can agree on reforms in much greater detail, supported by data impact analyses and financial calculations. This will give us a firmer foundation and a clearer understanding of what the government can realistically accomplish," Kallas concluded.

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