On Wednesday morning, the leadership of the Reform Party and Eesti 200 met to discuss the upcoming coalition talks. The negotiations will be divided into two parts.

In the first stage, Kristen Michal and Erkki Keldo of the Reform Party will meet with Kristina Kallas and Margus Tsahkna of Eesti 200. According to the prime minister, the reason for this is the need to proceed at speed.

"We will draw up a basic agreement, which will largely outline the principles of the coalition that we aim to deliver together. In other words, it is a continuation in spirit of what has gone before – security and the economy. The direction will be right-wing. Our solutions will be right-wing," Michal said.

"From that point on, two months would still be the period during which we would have more in-depth discussions about reform plans in these different areas, and at the end of May there will be a new agreement on sectoral reform plans," Kallas explained.

The second phase of the negotiations involve going into more detail and will also include experts and stakeholders. According to Michal, a basic agreement outlining the areas of work and allocating ministerial portfolios ought to be ready within two weeks.

"I would like to be able to stand in front of the public in two weeks' time with the coalition agreement, or its foundational agreement, and the distribution of responsibilities, along with the new ministerial candidates," Michal said.

According to both Michal and Kallas, the distribution of responsibilities or ministerial portfolios is still open for discussion.

"This does not mean that we will take the four portfolios vacated by the Social Democratic Party, split them two ways and go ahead like that. We have to look at the government from the perspective of what reforms we actually agree on and who is going to lead these reforms within government," Kallas said.

"I think we need to reduce the number of ministers in government. I think we should reduce the number of ministers in the public sector. If we are going to reduce our public sector's administrative burden, then the state should also be a role model in terms of governance," Tsahkna said.

There has been talk  for instance of merging the roles of minister of social protection minister and minister of health,  though nothing has yet been decided.

The change of the governing coalition ill also necessitate a reshuffle when it comes to the chairs of the Riigikogu's various committees. However, there will be no major changes to the work of the Riigikogu over the next few weeks, including in relation to the drafting of bills, said Õnne Pillak, chair of the Reform Party's Riigikogu group.

"Once the next decisions have been made, we will come to the Riigikogu with those decisions. Then they can be formalized. But for the next few weeks, we will move forward at a steady pace," Pillak said.

The negotiations are set to begin on Saturday, when the issue of increasing defense capabilities will be discussed.

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