Estonia: country report
1. Are there major public service reforms taking place? If yes, in which areas? (e.g., healthcare, public utilities, public transport, education)?
Great changes have occurred after Estonia became independent. Privatization of the public sector began in 1992 and was to be completed in 1998. Public Utilities - the majority of enterprises are managed by foreign investors. Public Transport - contests are continuously organized. Local governments have given it into use of private companies. Security - guard service is privatized and in two cities (Tallinn and Pärnu) local governments have engaged municipal police in addiction to the police. Education - private schools and kindergartens have been set up. Railway - participation of the state with a smaller percent, now it should be nationalized again - the European Union does not support the private investor. Public Institutions - privatization of prisons, first aid, rescue, retirement homes have been discussed, at the moment Falck has 5 first aid crews and there are some oldsters’ care homes. Outsourcing -a lot of services are being bought by the public institutions. Power - major reforms in the power sector probably lie ahead. On the one hand, opening of the power market, on the after hand, lessening of the dependence of the Russian power. Though power market is partly already opened and several enterprises - both the ones based on local capital as well as multinational ones - are operating, they still depend essentially on Eesti Energia - a private-law enterprise, 100% of the stocks of which belong to the Estonian State. However, if the process of privatization of power enterprises continues within the whole European Union, the question - what it will bring about - still remains without answer. On the last meeting of the working team of the EPSU Power sector a lot was criticized, especially representatives of the British trade unions unequivocally brought forward the dangers accompanying the privatization: small enterprises do not have the means for making necessary investments (under that the modernization of the electrical network would suffer), big enterprises are interested in the acquisition of the monopoly state which would enable them to pursue bigger profit margins both from consumer prices and from economy in the part of investments. The biggest changes are still to come. When the Estonian-Finnish electric connecting cable will be completed, the future prospects in the part of the necessary power resources will become clear (whether on atomic station will be built or not and if not, what the alternative will be) and what steps Russia will undertake in the part of its power sale, including gas supplies (today Gazprom owns 37.02% of the stocks of Eesti Gaas).
2. What effect are they having on the financing, organization and quality of services?
The Estonian economy advances successfully under the leadership of the right-wing parties. The prices for services are constantly growing - before the accession to the European Union the inflation was around 3% for 2 years, now we are unable to keep this level and taking into use of EURO is postponed. The public sector is essentially affected also by the reduction of an individual income tax, which has already decreased from 26% to 23%, and the decrease will continue at least to 20%. The services are rendered at a higher price and the quality leaves to be desired, i.e. the price for services often does not correspond to the quality. There is a lack of skilled labour: police, healthcare, rescue workers. Eesti Energia contributes to a better quality of the service. The others on the market just have to offer a highest possible quality. At the same time the dependence on the Russian gas export was also felt in Estonia at the beginning of this year when the cold weather made Russia essentially decrease the gas supplies to Estonia, including to the Iru thermal power station. In the last years structural changes have taken place at Eesti Energia - the Estonian biggest enterprise producing and supplying electric power - as a result of which the parts of the concern have been restructured into independent legal entities. At the same time, under the conditions of the growing skilled labour, the collective negotiations at the beginning of this year went on in a quite positive atmosphere and the trade unions were able to win the wages increase (depending on the enterprise and wages group) of 6-12%. And that under the conditions when today’s wages are mainly on the same level or higher than the Estonian average wages. At the same time a part of activities has been taken out of the concern. While no essential growth of electric power prices is prognoses, it is planned to raise the gas prices for the consumers up to 3 times in the nearest years, which means that the price will growth also for heat producers who use gas for that. Supervision over the activity of the power sector enterprises in Estonia is exercised by the power market inspection. The inspection is said to have made remarks to the enterprises operating on the market, which wished to raise the wages of their workers, as in their opinion there has been no ground for wages increase.
3. Are there further reforms planned?
Administrative reforms - centralization. While in other places in the European Union they speak of decentralization, in the Estonian public institutions centralization takes place. The volume of changes will be clear after the approval of the strategic plans and depending on the character of the plans. Big investments are continuously needed. Similar to the other European Union states, the need of power of Estonia will increase in the nearest years.
4. What are the key policy demands of organizations representing social partners, local government, NGO’s, consumer organizations?
The amendment of the Authorized Representative Act as well as the amendment of the Trade Union Act together with that. Boards of local self-governments voted against the amendment of the Act where the right to decide is only on the local level. It is essential for the Trade Unions that when the strategic plan is completed and approved by the Government, the expected consequences are introduced to the Trade Unions (employment, wages level, etc.).
5. What kind of public campaigns are you planning?
I think that questioning should be carried out in Estonia on what people think of the quality of services of the public sector, whether the service offered by the private sector is better and higher-quality than that offered by the public sector? The most important nationwide campaign for the Trade Unions of the power sector is to organize and recruit into the Trade Union as many enterprises and workers as possible. That will create a positive possibility to oppose in future any amendments being planned that could bring damage to the workers.
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