Skip to main menu 19.05.26 NEWS ... The Michelin Guide Estonia this year recommends 43 restaurants. Five new venues were added to the main selection, while the country's existing one- and two-star restaurants retained their status.
19.05.26 NEWS ... A Tallinn man has been handed a three-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to shining a powerful laser beam at a police helicopter, causing it to take evasive action, Postimees reported.
19.05.26 NEWS ... Scammers posing as legitimate callers and acting through the chief accountant defrauded the Estonian Artists' Association of approximately €700,000.
19.05.26 NEWS ... A bill aligning Estonian law with revised European Union law on the treatment of asylum seekers passed a Riigikogu vote Monday, with 53 votes in favor and 20 against.
19.05.26 NEWS ... A new and more potent drug has reached Estonia and claimed several lives in just a few days, prompting authorities to issue a warning.
19.05.26 NEWS ... Although emergency rooms saw slightly fewer visits last year than before, they remain overloaded. One thing that does not appear to be changing is the tendency for people to go to the ER instead of seeing their family physician.
18.05.26 NEWS ... Starting from next year, patients who believe they need psychiatric care will first be referred to their family physician who will determine with the help of an e-consultation whether specialist treatment is needed.
18.05.26 NEWS ... Members of the Riigikogu's motorcycle support group have submitted a draft bill to the government for consideration that would grant motorcycles the right to use bus lanes.
18.05.26 NEWS ... While the Prosecutor's Office welcomes the consent law currently in Riigikogu proceedings, prosecutors say it will change little in how cases of rape are investigated.
18.05.26 NEWS ... Starting May 18, air threat alerts will once again be tested through the "Ole valmis!" mobile app as part of the Spring Storm 2026 exercise. The Air Force is urging everyone to use the app to report any aircraft they spot.
18.05.26 NEWS ... While Estonia's mandatory high school English exam can be replaced with an international one, the Cambridge or CAE exam will no longer be free of charge starting 2027.
18.05.26 NEWS ... Selver will close its only store in Põlva next spring, as the current rental space would have required renovations costing as much as building a new store. Plans are in place to also close a shop in Viljandi.
18.05.26 NEWS ... The European Union is moving toward banning social media for children under 16 in an effort to protect them from harmful content and addictive algorithms. While several countries have already begun restricting access, Estonian experts and policymakers do not support a total ban.
16.05.26 NEWS ... A court has sentenced a teacher in South Estonia to seven years' prison time after finding him guilty of pedophile offenses, Lõuna Postimees reported.
15.05.26 NEWS ... The Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) will demand during teachers' salary negotiations that the government fulfill its pre-election promises by raising teachers' minimum salary to 120 percent of the national average.
15.05.26 NEWS ... The government has approved new pet identification rules requiring dogs and cats to be microchipped and recorded in a nationwide registry.
15.05.26 NEWS ... The U.S. will not appeal the fraud conviction and lenient punishment of Estonian crypto millionaires Ivan Turõgin and Sergei Potapenko, allowing them to return to Estonia.
14.05.26 NEWS ... Tallinn's public spaces ignore young people's needs, says psychologist Grete Arro, who proposes a youth mayor to help shape the city around them.
14.05.26 NEWS ... The state has launched an investigation into the ferry operating between Prangli and the mainland. According to the Safety Investigation Bureau conducting the probe, the move stems from the vessel's frequent problems.
14.05.26 NEWS ... The Bank of Estonia will on June 5 issue a special 2-euro coin dedicated to beloved Estonian children's literary character Sipsik.
14.05.26 NEWS ... The Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs would end the default practice of public hearings in all pretrial proceedings and appeals of court rulings in an effort to speed up the administration of justice.
13.05.26 NEWS ... Although young people's loneliness is often discussed in public, demographer Mark Gortfelder rejected that notion. According to him, while people are still forming partnerships at the same rate, the main problem lies in the instability of relationships.
13.05.26 NEWS ... The Riigikogu on Wednesday passed a law with 76 votes in favor requiring all conscripts entering compulsory military service to have at least B1-level proficiency in Estonian starting at the beginning of 2027.
13.05.26 NEWS ... The Ministry of Finance continues to see a need for the state to retain its holdings in Levira, Eesti Loto, Eesti Energia and RKAS. The state justifies retaining its stake in the former on security grounds.
13.05.26 NEWS ... A bill that would define sexual intercourse without consent as rape has been sent to its second reading by the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee after additional amendments were added to define consent.
13.05.26 NEWS ... Emergency services extinguished fires at two hangars in the village of Iru on the outskirts of Tallinn on Tuesday evening.
13.05.26 NEWS ... The Defense Forces and the Defense League may be given the authority to detain and inspect people outside areas designated as national defense sites. Legal experts warn that there may be a risk of disproportionate use of force.
12.05.26 NEWS ... Tallinn is raising back-to-school benefits for city schoolchildren this fall, with payments for first graders starting school nearly doubling.
12.05.26 NEWS ... A draft Family Law Act would require adoptive families to inform children of their adoption and would grant children the right to obtain information about their biological parents without the latter's consent.
12.05.26 NEWS ... It will be mandatory for Estonian government agencies to support identity verification in the state app, which only a few organizations currently recognize, starting in 2028, the State Information System Authority said.
12.05.26 NEWS ... Estonia is one step closer to rolling out a new cell broadcast smartphone emergency alert system next year, part of a broader overhaul of the country's public warning system.
12.05.26 NEWS ... A human trafficker who coerced two young men into virtual slave labor by making threats, including to push one of them over the edge of a cliff, has been imprisoned.
12.05.26 NEWS ... The head of Omniva's philately division resigned after old stamp sheets from the postal company's warehouse appeared for sale online under his wife's name.
12.05.26 NEWS ... Planned updates to the family medicine system, aimed at better and more even quality of service, include a proposal to discipline doctors who recommend pseudoscience to patients.
11.05.26 NEWS ... Educators say earlier basic school final exams for 9th graders are disrupting learning and stressing out students and teachers. The Education Ministry says to give it time.
11.05.26 NEWS ... Estonia could be headed for a dry summer, as unusually low rainfall and dry soil raise drought concerns that even occasional storms may not ease.
11.05.26 NEWS ... While winning in court is no guarantee of recovering all legal expenses, experts do not believe limiting defense attorneys' fees to be a good fix.
11.05.26 NEWS ... Estonia is increasingly relying on volunteer rescuers as their role expands from emergency response into broader crisis preparedness.
11.05.26 NEWS ... Summer job openings are filling quickly across Estonia, and employers warn teens and students still looking for seasonal work may already be too late.
11.05.26 NEWS ... Mental health problems could cost Estonia's economy over 2 percent of GDP per year between 2025-2050 – one of the highest among OECD countries, a new report shows.
10.05.26 NEWS ... Shallow-sea sediments formed nearly 400 million years ago are now more visible than before after a partial collapse of the sandstone riverbank in Põlva County. Locals hope the newly exposed area will stay clean of graffiti.
10.05.26 NEWS ... In Narva, May 9 was celebrated as Europe Day with a large public concert on Town Hall Square.
08.05.26 NEWS ... The Kirna Manor Tulip Festival returns this spring with about 150 varieties on display, marking a strong comeback after wet weather last year wiped out many of their plants.
09.05.26 NEWS ... Estonian law lags behind a surge in cybercrime, prosecutors and lawmakers say.
09.05.26 NEWS ... The United Kingdom's Ambassador to Estonia, Ross Allen, will be leaving in July after a five-year stint.
09.05.26 OPINION ... The Sildaru family saga lately took another unexpected turn when Tõnis Sildaru suddenly seemed to discover the concept of sports ethics, writes legal scholar Kärt Pormeister.
09.05.26 NEWS ... Four people, three of them police officers, were injured Friday in the Ida-Viru County town of Narva-Jõesuu during an operation to detain two men suspected of drug offences.
09.05.26 NEWS ... Banning social media won't fully protect children online, a new report from Estonia's Foresight Center warns, arguing digital literacy may matter more than age limits.
08.05.26 NEWS ... Last year in Estonia, parents utilized the state family mediation service over 1,000 times to resolve post-separation disputes without court intervention, with roughly 40 percent reaching formal agreements, the Social Insurance Board reports.
08.05.26 NEWS ... Archaeologists excavating the future Siuru Cultural Center site in Tartu have unearthed what may be the city's oldest building with a concrete cellar, among other discoveries.
