17.09.26 NEWS ... Estonia's government is considering pushing back its Rail Baltica completion target to 2034 to make greater use of EU funding and reduce the rail project's cost to taxpayers.

17.09.26 NEWS ... Estonia's government is aiming to wrap up 2027 state budget talks next week, with ministers weighing spending needs against a target to cut the budget deficit to 4 percent.

17.09.26 NEWS ... Estonia is commissioning a security threat assessment for six sites in Viru-Nigula and Lüganuse municipalities being considered for the country's first nuclear power plant.

17.09.26 OPINION ... The constant nagging about how Canada should become the 51st U.S. state has worn out the northern nation, and now as many as 81 percent of Canadians favor closer ties with the European Union, writes Argo Ideon.

17.09.26 NEWS ... Liina Vahtras, who has just become minister of economic affairs and industry, previously served on the management board of the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (EIS) and also sat on the board of Rochna Invest OÜ — a company whose portfolio startups received a total of €1.25 million in support from EIS during the same period. Prime Minister Kristen Michal said Vahtras acted in accordance with the rules because she did not take part in making the funding decisions.

17.09.26 NEWS ... Estonia will keep unemployment insurance premium rates unchanged through 2030, maintaining the current combined rate of 2.4 percent of wages for the next four years.

17.09.26 NEWS ... Hospitals in Ida-Viru County are teaming up for a joint campaign to attract doctors to the understaffed region.

17.09.26 NEWS ... In March the Estonian Stockpiling Agency released about ten percent of its reserves to the market — mostly gasoline, with smaller amounts of diesel and aviation fuel. Currently there are no plans to buy back that fuel, as prices are high and such purchases could push them even higher.

16.09.26 NEWS ... Tech entrepreneur Jaan Tallinn tops this year's Äripäev rich list with an estimated net worth of €10.3 billion.

16.09.26 NEWS ... Finnish-owned supermarket Prisma's Estonian arm, acquired by Coop this year, has filed a collective redundancy notice affecting 67 support unit employees.

16.09.26 OPINION ... The upcoming talks on next year's minimum wage come as Estonia faces the lowest minimum‑wage purchasing power in the European Union and one of the weakest minimum‑to‑average‑wage ratios. A year ago, the government backed away from a tripartite good‑faith agreement meant to address the problem, writes Mark Gerassimenko.

16.09.26 NEWS ... The Estonian Artists' Association has shortcomings in its administration of creative grants and artist salaries, according to an administrative‑supervision report by the Ministry of Culture, which found that control measures were insufficient, internal accounting rules outdated, and document management in need of modernization.

16.09.26 NEWS ... Talking about the Russian threat has made foreign investors looking at Estonia more wary incoming Economy Minister Liina Vahtras (Reform) said.

16.09.26 NEWS ... Estonia's ambassador to the United States, Hannes Hanso, presented his credentials to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday at a ceremony held at the White House. In addition to Estonia, ambassadors from 13 other countries also presented their credentials.

16.09.26 NEWS ... LHV will close its customer offices in Tartu and Pärnu, citing changing banking habits and a continued decline in office visits.

15.09.26 NEWS ... Tartu's Genialistide Klubi is facing a shake-up as longtime subtenants Must Kast theater and Möku Bar plan to move out, citing the venue's uncertain future and desire to grow.

15.09.26 NEWS ... By this year, about one‑third of second‑pillar pension holders have withdrawn their savings. Both the decision to stay and the decision to leave may have been more emotional than calculated, and the real winners and losers of the reform will become clear in 20–30 years, says behavioral economics researcher Heidi Reinson.

15.09.26 OPINION ... The increase of the Estonian average wage by 117 euros is good news, but future years' wage growth cannot be built only on labor shortages and wage pressure, writes Raul Aron.

14.09.26 NEWS ... The Tallinn branch of Finnish department store Stockmann is to downsize its retail capacity to make way for a 1,200 square-meter, 24/7 gym, the company announced Monday.

14.09.26 NEWS ... Teachers and rescuers gathered outside the Riigikogu in Tallinn on Monday to demand higher public sector wages in the government's 2027 state budget.

14.09.26 NEWS ... Pärnu's former dairy plant site is set for a €50–60 million redevelopment featuring business spaces, entertainment and a multipurpose arena.

13.09.26 NEWS ... Despite EU plans to let local governments restrict short-term rentals where needed, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications sees no need for new limits in Estonia.

13.09.26 NEWS ... With new security features now available, the European Central Bank wanted to redesign euro banknotes, says designer Anne Pikkov. She represented Estonia on the jury that carried out the pre‑selection for the new euro banknote designs.

13.09.26 NEWS ... Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) ex-chief Martin Herem's selection as Estonia's next defense minister has some defense experts troubled over industry ties and procurement plans.

12.09.26 NEWS ... The government has approved amendments to the protection rules for Alutaguse National Park, aimed at merging existing protected areas and species habitats into a single functioning whole. The park will expand by 24,749 hectares, bringing its total area to 69,768 hectares.

12.09.26 NEWS ... The European Central Bank's latest rate hike is already reflected in the six‑month Euribor that shapes most Estonians' loan payments, meaning borrowers are unlikely to see higher monthly costs this year — but a spring increase could still push payments up.

12.09.26 NEWS ... Tallinna Vesi development manager Marti Vaksmann says that there are 3,000 kilometers of pipelines beneath Tallinn, including 50 kilometers of large pipes where a person can walk. He notes that being inside a wastewater collector is not the most pleasant experience, but it is part of the job.

12.09.26 NEWS ... New EU packaging rules could saddle micro‑businesses with heavy costs and bureaucracy when selling across borders, prompting the European Commission to signal it may allow flexibility for the smaller firms, a senior official said during a visit to Estonia.

12.09.26 NEWS ... Restaurant closures have become a near‑monthly occurrence this year, with Ülo in Tallinn's Kalamaja district the latest to shut down. Owners say soaring costs are pushing the industry to the brink, and many now view a cut to the sector's VAT rate as the only path to survival.

11.09.26 NEWS ... Defense industry company Krattworks has hired former Bank of Estonia Governor Madis Müller as a financial adviser.

11.09.26 OPINION ... Assessing recent developments, it is understandable why financial markets expect additional interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank to ensure inflation returns to the two percent target within a couple of years, Ülo Kaasik writes.

11.09.26 NEWS ... If no new generation is added in either country, Google's Finnish data centers investment could hike the price of electricity by half a cent per kilowatt-hour in Estonia, experts warn.

10.09.26 NEWS ... A new €800,000 state program to support Ida‑Viru women's entry into the labor market will spend over €615,000 on salaries and other staff-related costs, documents show.

10.09.26 NEWS ... The Education Ministry told unions it has no room in the state budget for a teacher pay raise, saying any increase would require cuts elsewhere. The Education Workers' Union warned that teachers are prepared to stage work stoppages.

09.09.26 NEWS ... Budget talks are continuing within the government. On the one hand, the government is seeking to keep the deficit below 4.5 percent, but ministers acknowledge there is little room for spending cuts.

09.09.26 NEWS ... Nearly 67,000 Estonian companies have yet to file their annual reports, but officials say those that are only a few months late are not at immediate risk of being removed from the Business Register.

09.09.26 NEWS ... Estonia's leaders say Russian grain exports through its ports are "not acceptable" and practically non‑existent, as the Baltic states discuss joint measures to curb transit of Russian and Belarusian grain.

09.09.26 NEWS ... The Environment Agency fields hundreds of requests a year to correct the locations of drilled wells on state maps, as registry data often has them in the wrong place.

09.09.26 NEWS ... On Wednesday, the Transport Administration will install a new bidirectional speed‑camera cabin at kilometer 78.6 of the Risti–Virtsu–Kuivastu–Kuressaare road, in Liiva village, Muhu municipality. Its purpose is to help ensure compliance with the 40 km/h speed limit and make road crossing safer for pedestrians.

08.09.26 NEWS ... In the second quarter of 2026, there were 8,363 job vacancies in Estonia. This is nearly 2,000 job vacancies fewer than in the second quarter last year, Statistics Estonia data reveals.

08.09.26 NEWS ... In Estonia, a nuclear power plant can only be built on the coast to ensure sufficient cooling water, but dozens of other requirements must also be met.

07.09.26 NEWS ... The rebrand of Finnish-owned Prisma supermarkets following the sale to the Coop chain starts this week in Estonia, affecting 13 supermarkets.

07.09.26 OPINION ... Cutting two thirds of LEADER funding reduces, along with the number of projects, local people's ability to influence the future of their region, writes Hendrik Johannes Terras.

07.09.26 NEWS ... In August, nearly 390,000 passengers passed through Tallinn Airport, which is the best monthly result in the airport's history and 16 percent more than at the same time last year.

07.09.26 NEWS ... The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.5 percent on year to August 2026, Statistics Estonia reported.

06.09.26 OPINION ... The lives of Estonian people will not be improved by Kristen Michal's sugar‑coating nor by Urmas Reinsalu's populism, writes Lavly Perling.

05.09.26 OPINION ... It is extremely cynical to hear concern about budget balance from those who themselves have been the architects of irresponsible decisions, writes Mart Võrklaev in response to Jüri Ratas' commentary "Growth bought with state debt will clip future prosperity."

05.09.26 OPINION ... Don't believe the coalition's latest assurances that taxes won't rise again or that the budget will magically balance thanks to some mysterious internal reserves. Budget arithmetic clearly shows these promises won't hold, writes Jüri Ratas.

05.09.26 NEWS ... On Friday, the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture announced a public written auction for the disposal of shares of the public limited company Eesti Post. The deadline for submitting bids is 27 November. The auction will sell 100 percent of Eesti Post's shares, with a total starting price of €52 million.

04.09.26 NEWS ... Fuel prices in Estonia are now fluctuating daily or even several times a day, driven more by an ongoing price war between filling station chains than by the Iran crisis.