Postimees Digest, Wednesday, April 17
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European Commission widens Estonian Air state aid investigation.
The European Commission announced yesterday that it is to widen its thorough investigation into state aid given to national airline Estonian Air to also include the February 28 decision to provide the firm with an additional 28.7 million euros.
Press representative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications Rasmus Ruuda said that Estonia has violated no rules in providing aid to EA as the state treats the support as a single rescue loan paid out in installments. EC regulations state that a country can only render state aid to companies once as not to keep unsustainable enterprises on life support. Estonian agencies claim that most of the sum is needed to finance urgent structural measures to make it possible for the company to carry out reorganization.
Tax board to tackle illegal cigarettes market.
The Tax and Customs Board has taken illegal tobacco as its priority for the coming years and aims to cut the black market in half by 2016. The board estimated last year that illegal cigarettes make up around 19 percent of the market and cost the state roughly 40 million euros a year. That sum would make it possible to pay 10,000 teachers an additional 200 euros a month, the board communicated.
Tallinn demands excise duty appropriation in court.
The administrative court has decided to process the city of Tallinn's application, filed on March 14, that calls for abrogation of the central government's regulation to distribute excise duty road maintenance funds. Deputy mayor Kalle Kladorf said that the city finds its 2.9 million euro share in the state's road maintenance budget is too small considering the size of the capital and the amount of transit traffic in handles.
In addition the state refused to provide Tallinn with financing through a measure created specifically for cities that have ports and handle a lot of transit.
"The trouble is that many local governments do not have the strength to stand up for themselves in matters like these. We have that capacity, we have good lawyers and we can go after the things that we find unjust," Klandorf said. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Road Administration have calculated that it would take around 30-50 million euros a year for five consecutive years in order to fix up Tallinn's roads. Economy ministry press representative Rasmus Ruuda has previously said that it is a matter of local level choices whether to spend 20 million euros a year on free public transport or use that money to fix streets. The court requires the government to reply by May 27.
Rõivas would boost subsistence benefits.
Minister of Social Affairs Taavi Rõivas said the subsistence level needs to be raised by 20 percent and that it could be done next year "if the state budget allows". The minister said that a 20 percent rise of the benefit would help more than 10,000 households shake poverty.
The Estonian Patient Advocacy Association released a statement yesterday that pointed out that almost all benefits aimed at families and disabled persons have remained unchanged for a long time. "That is why social support becomes less and less of what the state originally had in mind in terms of its effect as time goes on," the statement reads. The subsistence benefit currently stands at 76.70 euros for a person living alone of for the first member of a family and at 61.36 euros for every member after that.
Children's hospital working at the end of its tether.
The workload of the emergency medicine unit (EMO) of the Tallinn Children's Hospital has grown by 168 percent over the past decade from 8,600 patients a year to 23,045.
Head of the hospital's reception department, doctor Krista Urbsoo, said that the hospital is working at the end of its tether while head of the hospital, doctor Katrin Luts, said that queues at the emergency medicine department can stretch to four or even five hours. Luts believes the social ministry should carry out a thorough analysis of why people turn to the hospital so it could make corresponding changes.
"We do not have more children in Estonia after all and the number of doctors hasn't changed that much either," she said. Social ministry deputy chancellor Ivi Normet said illness has grown by 1.5 times among 1-4 year olds over the past 14 years.