On March 5, the ERJK decided that the Reform Party, the SDE, Eesti 200 and the Center Party must repay a total of €92,572 to the Liberal Citizen Foundation (SALK). The four political parties do not agree with this decision and have filed an appeal in an administrative court, news portal Delfi writes (link in Estonian).

SDE acting secretary general Priit Lomp confirmed that both their party and the Center Party, Reform Party and Eesti 200 will take the party finance watchdog's decision to court.

Since we had already prepared this appeal and very thoroughly examined the matter at the time, we are, for the sake of legal clarity, submitting our own appeal to the court and requesting that it be taken up," Lomp said. "To clarify these situations for the future — what is permitted and what isn't. The current law leaves much room for interpretation."

He added that the Social Democrats will be filing a separate appeal, while Reform, Center and Eesti 200 will file a joint appeal.

"We had proposed sometime in the first round already that we could dispute or discuss [this matter] together," Lomp recalled. "At that time, the other parties did not wish to discuss it jointly."

Reform Party secretary general Timo Suslov stated that three of the parties will be represented in court by the law firm TGS Baltic. He confirmed that all of the parties have approved the firm's arguments, and that the appeal will be filed sometime Friday.

On March 6, the Political Party Funding Supervision Committee (ERJK) issued a ruling requiring the Social Democratic Party, Eesti 200, the Reform Party and the Center Party to return a prohibited donation amounting to nearly €100,000.

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