Holm made his remarks in the aftermath of a National Audit Office (Riigikontroll) report issued this week which found the government's Southeastern Estonia development plan has had little real impact, and risks being ineffective without concrete action.

"People in South-East Estonia face issues — be it with electricity supply, road conditions, healthcare, or internet connectivity. All of this is written down, yet there are no solutions. Instead, it is a document that is like opium for the people," Holm told X.
One of the most ambitious ideas in the 11-year-old, 10-page document was to bring 5 percent of state agency jobs to the South-East Estonia region. In actuality, state agencies have instead been moving in the opposite direction, away from the region, while support for the area has been insufficient, while, Holm said, funding which has been directed to the region has not led to clear results.

"420 million (euros), of which 262 million were subsidies, and of that specifically only 2 percent went to South-East Estonia. And no one even knows how that 2 percent has contributed," Holm said.

The region has fallen into an even more difficult situation since the war in Ukraine started.

Tiit Toots, board member of the Võrumaa Development Center (SA Võrumaa arenduskeskus), said defense and border infrastructure being put in place – southeastern Estonia is the only region where Estonia's border with Russia runs over land, albeit sparsely populated and often wilderness areas – has had a deleterious effect on the region's economy.

"In fact, the cumulative negative impact of building defense and border infrastructure in this region is greater than elsewhere in Estonia, and in the long term, I believe it will also negatively affect our socio-economic indicators. Therefore, I think the state must give South-East Estonia even more special attention," Toots said.

Ultimately it is down to the central government to decide what to do, Holm said. "We could take this to the government and discuss how to solve the problems of South-East Estonia."

However, the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture has conceded that over the years it has not been able to meet the goals set in the plan, and has said change will not come until the issue becomes cross-ministerial.

"We will certainly bring the broader topic to the government for discussion, and we will proceed based on three aspects. First, decisions related to regional development must be made at a strategic level. Second, they must be binding on other sectoral policies.

And third — more resources must be directed outside Harju County, and from there we must assess which regions require special conditions," said Kai Kalmann-Jotautas, head of the ministry's regional policy department.

The National Audit Office report said the existing plan for Southeastern Estonia has not had concrete real impact, adding the region continues to lag in key economic and demographic indicators, ranking worst in Estonia for healthy life years. Holm warned in the report that strategy documents risk creating "false hope" without real results. The plan mostly repackages existing measures, with unclear links between problems, actions, and outcomes, the report stated, recommending either tying the plans to measurable results, or scrapping them entirely.

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