"The first proposals went [to the government] at Monday's meeting of the advisory council, and as far as I know, there should be a meeting of the economic cabinet on May 8,during which, the package will be discussed," Sutter said on ERR show "Otse uudistemajast" on Wednesday.

Asked by broadcaster Anvar Samost whether this could be a first indication of how seriously the government is taking business involvement and the cutting of red tape, Sutter replied: "In principle, yes."

Sutter explained that the government's new economic growth advisory council, convened by Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform), had asked businesses to submit their proposals for cutting red tape, and that the Estonian Employers' Confederation itself had also collected ideas on the same topic. These ideas were then reviewed, collated and systematized by volunteers from the confederation and law firm Sorainen. On Monday, the council examined each of the first batch of proposals in turn and decided to forward around 30 of them to the government.

Prolonged planning costly for society as a whole

In response to the comment that planning-related issues received a great deal of attention in the breakdown of the proposals into themes, Sutter said a lot of proposals were received on this theme from different organizations and from different perspectives, including from the Estonian Employers' Confederation. Planning is a very big problem in Estonia, he added.

"Whatever we want to do – to invest, to develop, to create something new – it essentially means planning. And when it comes to planning there is one thing about the law that is unreasonable –  there are too many instances, too many requirements. If you have a master plan, you still have to do a detailed plan and so on, there's a lot of detail. We have a lot of comments about the law, which could be made much simpler," he said.

"And the other thing is that we have created a kind of legal monster that cannot be dealt with. Those who are implementing this law, who are mainly local authorities, are systematically breaking the law, that is, the deadlines set by the law do not apply. And it is not just a matter of a few years, but we have here some planning procedures that have dragged on for ten years or more, which no law foresees. What we are proposing is not just to put an end to this violation of the law, but also to significantly shorten the time limits," Sutter added.

Sutter pointed to the example of the cost of new apartment block developments. "If an entrepreneur buys a piece of land somewhere quite important, pays a lot of money for it, and it then takes ten years to complete the detailed planning procedure, up to the point where they receive a building permit and can start building – well, then it has been calculated that that adds 20 percent to the end price of the apartment, because of the capital costs and everything else, that you keep it that long. So, that cost comes back to the society in any case."

Sutter also stressed that planning is not just about building housing, but also about building new production units and infrastructure as well as environmental impact assessments. "Every new investment, every new production unit, every new piece of infrastructure, all of these things immediately require planning, and we have so many really good things and so many really good ideas that are being held up by the need for planning in Estonia," he said.

Volume of reporting and methods of collection will be looked at

Commenting on the reduction of red tape related to reporting, Sutter pointed out that both the volume of reporting and the technical, information technology (IT) side of collecting it will be examined.

"The different national data systems often don't communicate very well with each other and this so-called IT debt is then offset by the time businesses spend. The record is that some data has to be entered three times or, in some cases even more, but in fact this is data that the state already has somewhere," he explained. "Maybe if we take 20,000 businesses and each business puts in 10 hours a year – just for example – then the impact of how much time is being spent on this is mind-boggling. And on top of that, the state has to process all that data, so someone somewhere on the other end is doing it," Sutter explained.

According to Sutter, it was decided that entrepreneur Taavi Kotka will lead a working group that at the reporting-related issues in a more systematic way. "And I wouldn't be surprised if a proposal from comes from entrepreneurs for the state to invest in catching up on IT debt, because the social return on this investment is so high," he added.

Asked if perhaps reporting should not simply be collected at all on such a scale, Sutter replied: "That's a different matter now and there are a lot of proposals in this area. One is related to the volume of reporting and the other relates to the technical implementation of reporting – both are on the table."

EU regulations already being relaxed

Speaking about EU regulations that create more bureaucracy, Sutter said that in the climate field, for example, the EU has already started to relax a number of rules and requirements.

The 60 specific proposals from the Estonian Employers' Confederation., many of which related to sustainability reporting, were submitted to the European Commission via Business Europe in December. According to Sutter, 80 percent of them are now in the pipeline and the first decisions have been taken.

"It is precisely for smaller companies that the obligation to report on sustainability has sometimes been postponed, and sometimes it is being made completely voluntary, so that it is not being implemented at all. There's also a procedure in Europe, whereby have to go through the European Parliament and so on, but we hope that Omnibus 2 and Omnibus 3 will come from Europe this year. By the end of the year, there will be two more packages to help cut red tape at the European level – there will be large component of the red tape related to the green turn alone," he explained. According to Sutter, the current pace at which red tape is being reduced effectively is impressive.

Sutter also pointed out that there has also been talk of changing the emissions trading system (ETS) and its further development into ETS2. However, the first proposal at the moment is to delay its implementation.

"Particularly in European affairs, postponement is easier procedurally than repeal and because there is still the European Parliament behind it, which is a cross-section of European society – I suggest you look at some of the ardent MEPs who are defending bureaucracy and believe that bureaucracy will save the world – everyone is represented there. So, technically the European Commission is one thing, but then there's the Council and the Parliament. In other words, maybe it's just quicker to postpone or suspend compliance in order to then be able to take the next steps," Sutter explained.

Sutter remains optimistic

Asked how much hope there is that the process initiated by the Estonian government will yield results and that entrepreneurs will not simply be exploited politically, Sutter said that the faith of entrepreneurs is already shown by the number of ideas submitted.

"If there was no hope, nobody would have invested their time in it. If there was no hope, then they would not have put the effort in," he said.

"I really think that this sense of urgency has reached the level of the Estonian government and the European Commission, and it is based on the fact that our economy is lagging behind, in Europe and Estonia. If we look at the growth trajectory of the American economy over the last 15 to 20 years and the trajectory of the Estonian or the European economy, they have very different growth trajectories, and that is the driving force behind this – we have to provide the opportunity for the economy to start to grow and compete with both the American and the Chinese economies. That is what has driven all the players to act."

"But on the other hand, it is true that we agreed among ourselves at the first meeting of the council that if nothing has happened in six months, we are going to disperse, that there is no point in wasting time – we want to see results," he added.

Sutter said that the Estonian Employers' Confederation, will show its members how the proposals are progressing  on a rolling basis – what the outcomes are, which proposals have been taken on board, what has become of them. "The transparency and the feedback will also ensure that everyone who has put forward their proposals will be informed and will be able to continue to insist that something actually happens," he said.

Sutter dismissed the suggestion that the prime minister and the government could use businesses to boost their political support and abandon the process after the local elections.

"I think if you look at this group, then these are very experienced people and will not be taken advantage of. I would dare to promise that. However, at the same time, if we don't trust anybody in this world at all or support each other, nothing is going to happen, so that's sometimes how we operate. I have no reason to believe at the moment that this desire is just a pretense to actually do something to improve our economic environment," he said.

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