Government updated action plan of ‘Estonia 2035’ development strategy

The ‘Estonia 2035’ action plan is a comprehensive overview designed to steer the country’s long-term development. This way we can constantly monitor whether we are moving in the right direction and at a sufficient pace with our decisions,” said Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. “The green transition is one of the most important changes facing us as a country and a society. The action plan approved by the government facilitates this to a large extent. The goal is to make Estonia increasingly stronger, more successful and sustainable,” said the prime minister.

The green transition is one of the key changes that the society and the state must undergo in the coming years. Preparations for this are also reflected in the approved action plan. For instance, the state wants to develop a system for advising companies, which would support the capability of each company to undergo a green transition. At a local level, more clarity is provided with regard to the distribution of the tasks between the state and local governments in order to carry out the green transition and to increase the capability of local governments, the respective competence is increased locally. Innovative solutions for implementing digital and green transitions are adopted in the public sector as a whole. Furthermore, work is underway to ensure that the green transition can also take place in the fields of culture and sports. For the state to acquire better knowledge for developing the field, the use and reporting of data concerning sustainability are standardised.

The strategy’s action plan gathers the required activities in five groups: skills and labour market, sustainability of the nation, health and social protection; economy and climate, space and mobility and governance. All of the ministries contribute to the achievement of the objectives within their area of administration by planning activities in their development plans and programmes. The funding of the activities is agreed in the course of preparing the state budget and the budgetary strategy, which includes the European Union structural funds and other foreign support.

In addition to approving the action plan, the government received an overview of the implementation of the development strategy.
Positive developments include Estonia’s improved indicator on healthy life years in terms of both women and men; constantly increasing labour productivity and the research and development expenses of the private sector and the narrowing gender pay gap. The increased number of accidents where people are injured due to traumas or poisoning, however, gives cause for concern. The number of people who go to work using public transport, a bicycle or on foot has also decreased.

The updated ‘Estonia 2035’ action plan and the 2021 implementation overview can be found at https://valitsus.ee/strateegia-eesti-2035-arengukavad-ja-planeering/strateegia/materjalid