“Estonia has a large amount of unused European money, and we want to use it for strengthening our defence capabilities,” said Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “200 million is a very large amount of money that will be reallocated from the various activities of ministries. In the coming weeks, each ministry will have to summarise the activities from which money will be taken to further strengthen Estonia’s national defence.”
According to Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi, priorities need to be reassessed in the changed security situation. “We’ve made it possible at the European Union level to rechannel money into national defence,” he said. “It’s good to see that Europe is beginning to see the borders of the Baltic States as its own borders and to talk about local concerns as common to all of us.”
Ministries must submit their proposals to the Government in May. The more specific defence measures to which investments will be made will also be decided at the same time. On the basis of this decision of the Government, negotiations will be launched with the European Commission and a formal operational programme to increase investment in defence capabilities will be presented to the Commission in the second half of the year. Although this money cannot be used to buy military equipment and weaponry, it can be used to develop the infrastructure of defence industry, military mobility and comprehensive national defence.
Estonia has been one of the fastest implementers of cohesion funds in the European Union. As at the beginning of May, 74% (€2.5 billion) of the total amount of €3.4 billion for the period has been drawn down.
