At Thursday's meeting, the Cabinet supported a proposal made by Minister of Finance Sven Sester to draw up amendment bills according to which large state-owned companies would follow the notification rules of listed companies.

The large companies that would have to adopt these notification rules are companies that fulfill at least three of the following four criteria — sales exceed €14 million, assets exceed €7 million, workforce exceeds 200 people or the size of the supervisory board is at least eight members. The same criteria would also be used to decide whether or not a company must establish an auditing committee.

The companies that would have to publish more information in the future are the energy company Eesti Energia, transmission system operator Elering, port company Port of Tallinn, railway company Estonian Railways, state real estate management company Riigi Kinnisvara AS (RKAS), airport operator Tallinn Airport, postal company Eesti Post, welfare services provider AS Hoolekandeteenused, railway and transport company EVR Cargo, road construction and maintenance company AS Eesti Teed, which is due to be privatized soon, the airline Nordic Aviation Group, operating under the Nordica brand, and aircraft holding company OÜ Transpordi Varahaldus.

In addition, the ministers supported an article of the coalition agreement according to which state companies can financially support only development and research activities in their field, the Ministry of Finance said.

The Cabinet likewise supported specifying the capacity of the expert committee for naming members of the supervisory committees of state-owned companies which began work on Thursday. The ministers decided that a regulation would be drawn up soon which would enable the naming committee to operate as a permanent institution to guarantee its stability and independence.