Projects to be ditched will include cycle lanes, he told "Otse uudistemajast." Some of the investments had been found in pre-election pledges ahead of October's local election. The previous administration, which Isamaa was a part of, had also engaged in "greenwashing" with some of its projects, the deputy mayor went on.

The 2026 Tallinn city budget process was delayed into the start of the year thanks to coalition talks dragging on in the aftermath of the election, and the two parties only this week started negotiations.

The volume of previously planned investments is to be reduced, Järvan confirmed.

"At the moment, investments of roughly €280 million are planned, if memory serves, and from that about €100 million will have to be postponed. We are not saying that these investments will never be made. But in order to have responsible budget policy, and so that investments are not made only next year, but that investments in the following years are also viable — as kindergartens, playgrounds, streets and roads will also need to be built then — for that reason we will likely scale back the volume of investments this time," Järvan said.

Asked whether the ruling coalition is planning a negative budget, Järvan replied that rather, those items pledged ahead of the election will be postponed instead, he went on. This was in preference to having a negative, or deficit budget.

Järvan divided the investments into two categories: "aesthetic investments, so that things look nicer," and "critical investments," which included "viaducts, bridges that are truly worn out, whose remaining service life is already difficult to assess.

"These things must be fixed, and school buildings where children no longer fit need to be expanded. These are unavoidable expenses and they have to go ahead," Järvan said.

He also said some planned cycle lanes will not be going ahead.

"This is not only a matter of appearance, but [cycle lanes] take away from traffic lanes, yet it is difficult to say that this makes life better for city residents," he added.

As a concrete example, reconstruction of Peterburi tee to the southeast of central Tallinn will continue, Järvan said. He also cited Salme tänav, in the Kalamaja neighborhood, where reconstruction plans were initiated during the time of the previous city government, which Järvan's party was a part of.

While there are "about 50 [car] parkers" during the day, Järvan said, in the evenings when commuters have returned from work, this figure swells.

This means a plan to halve the number of parking spaces has been ditched.

"The solution offered at the time [of the preceding Reform-SDE-Eesti 200-Isamaa coalition] was ideologically that we want to create green areas on the street and cycle paths, so you, dear citizens, who have green gardens with an apple tree — take that apple tree down and create a parking space there instead. I would say this is complete greenwashing — the city can show how green we are, but the reality is that, dear homeowners, take a patch of land from your garden, asphalt it, and make parking spaces there, as long as the city looks green. I think that is not an adequate policy and we will put an end to that," Järvan went on.

Just over a month ago, Tallinn Mayor Peeter Raudsepp said a "populist," "ideological" approach to cars versus bikes and other road users and pedestrians in Tallinn would have to end.

The overall size of Tallinn's 2026 budget is roughly the same as last year's – totaling €1.3 billion.

Mayor: EU money not the sole factor

Later in the week Mayor Raudsepp told ERR that EU funds being available for a project need not mean that project is automatically to go ahead.

"We do not have a blanket approach that if there is European money behind something, then we will definitely do it – we do not suffer from that kind of temptation," he said.

The mayor called for pragmatism in evaluating projects. "The current city government wants to be realistic – that means we plan and undertake only as many things as we are actually able to carry out," he said, adding "An investment strategy is not actually such a concrete plan as in business, where it is precisely defined which objects we invest in and by when."

"By looking at things with a realist's eye, we can save all kinds of planning, design, and tender-related costs, which are nevertheless significant sums in the city budget. This has to be addressed," the mayor went on.

He also criticized a "wish list" approach to investments in the capital, saying past plans had sometimes looked like just that, "where often there is no actual capacity to carry out the investment, no funding source, nor even a substantive justification as to why it needs to be done at such a high cost. That is why the current city government's position has been that we go through these hundreds of line items one by one and reach a result by the end of the week as to what we will approve from there."

Ultimately the municipal services department is not able to carry out all planned projects at the same time, hence some of the cuts. With the scrapped redesign of Liivalaia tänav to incorporate a tramline, Raudsepp said: "It will probably be necessary to redesign quite a few things. I can confirm that this is far from the most expensive project that may not be realized. But we will talk about those next time," and noted that Liivalaia will be redesigned to some extent.

Staff cuts will also be made in the city administration, Raudsepp said, adding these will not stretch into the hundreds.

Editor's note: This piece was updated to include comments from Mayor Raudsepp.

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