Meeting with party leaders Wednesday, Bank of Estonia President Ülo Kaasik said that interparty agreements to curb debt growth have worked in countries such as Finland and Sweden and he hopes to see something similar from Estonia's politicians.

"We believe it would make sense to set a debt ceiling for Estonia — a level of debt that we could allow ourselves at most. That ceiling could, for example, be 30 percent, which is also where Estonia would end up if it adhered to its current budget rules," Kaasik said.

All political parties acknowledge that the growth of government debt is a major problem, but none consider a political agreement realistic.

"Reform Party representative Jürgen Ligi said this would not suit them. That's unfortunate. I think it is still sensible to make an effort to find common ground and the steps must be practical, especially for the outgoing government," said opposition Isamaa head Urmas Reinsalu.

"The outcome of meetings like this is always that there are a couple of people who think they're doing party propaganda and it's impossible to have a serious discussion with them, which is just what happened," Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi said.

"This is not actually realistic. It became clear quite quickly at today's meeting that the parties have very different views on the direction we're heading in and on how to get out of the current situation," said Martin Helme, chairman of EKRE.

The Social Democratic Party (SDE), which initiated Wednesday's meeting, was also forced to admit that little progress had been made toward an agreement.

"There were those who were willing to come along. There were those who did not see it as necessary. I would say it would be extremely difficult to reach such an agreement. We will make one more attempt," SDE chairman Lauri Läänemets said.

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