By Months: Urmas Kruuse
Total Months: 18
Fully Profiled: 18
10.2025
3 Speeches
Economic views stress the need to maintain high national defense spending (above 5% of GDP) without raising the general tax burden. The speaker promotes a fiscal framework that allows the tax burden to fall, even amid large defense expenditures.
09.2025
9 Speeches
Economic perspectives advocate for strategic intervention in agriculture (targeted subsidies, public procurement reform) to ensure competitiveness and food security. He/She acknowledges Estonia's significant debt burden and the cyclical nature of the economy, questioning whether the current period compensates for previous over-leveraged growth. He/She supports reducing bureaucracy within PRIA and increasing the production of domestic protein-rich feed to reduce imports.
06.2025
5 Speeches
The speaker supports increasing the share of services in exports, viewing this as a sign of Estonia’s intelligence and flexibility. He/She emphasizes the critical role of efficient procurement in driving down prices and supports efforts to enhance competitiveness. It is recognized that a small production scale (both volume and mass) increases unit costs, which poses challenges for maintaining market competitiveness.
05.2025
14 Speeches
The speaker supports cutting red tape for entrepreneurs and service providers and advocates for greater flexibility within the pension system. He addresses issues concerning inflation and supply chains but argues that Estonian prices are not the highest in Europe. He stresses the necessity of analyzing the differences in how agricultural and forest land are taxed so that more sensible increases can be planned.
04.2025
2 Speeches
Economic perspectives emphasize the protection of taxpayer interests and cost awareness, specifically raising questions about the expense associated with child support debt. Simultaneously, the speaker supports targeted funding for the cultural sector (raising royalties) to ensure the financial security of Estonian authors.
03.2025
1 Speeches
Economic views are strongly pro-business and growth-oriented, considering entrepreneurs the main engine of economic recovery. They advocate for active state support through measures that help businesses adapt to crises and boost exports.
02.2025
12 Speeches
The speaker supports using economic leverage to cripple Russia’s activities. He/She is critical of bills that could harm the capitalization of banks and the competitiveness of Estonian-owned banks. He/She raises questions regarding the lost income of depositors and doubts the effectiveness of providing additional tax breaks for philanthropy when existing major incentives are not being utilized.
01.2025
12 Speeches
The economic outlook focuses on supporting the efficiency and competitiveness of the agricultural sector, viewing this as fundamental to the sector's long-term survival. It advocates for tax policy benefits, such as taxing diesel fuel at the European minimum rate, deeming this a distinct competitive advantage. It favors targeted support for smaller businesses and young farmers.
12.2024
2 Speeches
Economic perspectives support worker protection via social conditionality, but they stress that this does not constitute an additional burden for businesses, as the requirements overlap with existing occupational safety supervision. The speaker aims to alleviate fears about regulation by assuring that penalization is not the objective. He/She supports regulations that are consistent with the positions held by the Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce.
11.2024
7 Speeches
Economically, he/she supports competitiveness-based subsidies in agriculture and opposes making them more social, arguing that this would endanger strong businesses. In the climate debate, he/she stresses that the cost of inaction will be manifold higher in the future, pointing to the necessity of investing now to prevent greater future economic losses.
10.2024
7 Speeches
The speaker is a strong proponent of the market economy and the financing of entrepreneurship, opposing state intervention through the taxation of bank profits. He emphasizes that banks already contribute via advance income tax, and additional taxation would reduce consumption and overall economic contribution. He warns that excessive taxation will lead to costs being passed back to clients and will harm competitiveness.
09.2024
9 Speeches
Economically, the speaker supports targeted subsidies and incentives (such as a minimum preferential rate for special diesel for farmers) aimed at strengthening competitiveness. He/She is skeptical of lowering the VAT on foodstuffs, questioning its real impact on prices and market competition. Furthermore, he/she advocates for risk-based controls on businesses to cut down on bureaucracy.
06.2024
2 Speeches
Economic perspectives emphasize market transparency and the necessity of protecting consumers from unwarranted price hikes resulting from the exploitation of crises. There is also strong skepticism regarding cryptocurrencies, which are viewed as a potential means of concealing income and generating illicit profits.
05.2024
6 Speeches
Economic viewpoints focus on the details of financial regulation and consumer protection, specifically inquiring about the procedures for closing and potentially reopening bank current accounts. The primary concern is whether a decision made by one bank restricts a client's ability to use services at other banks.
04.2024
13 Speeches
Economic perspectives emphasize the need for strategic state investment in critical areas, such as veterinary services, to guarantee food security. He/She supports saving taxpayer money by implementing technical solutions (like utilizing foreign partner laboratories) and points out the challenging economic state of the agricultural sector, which remains unprofitable even with subsidies.
03.2024
6 Speeches
Supports fiscal discipline and is concerned about the size of the state budget deficit, viewing the 147 million deficit as significant. In energy policy, it prioritizes strategic security and supply reliability, even if this conflicts with the negative climate perception associated with gas. It views investing in education as a potential source of long-term savings in healthcare expenditure.
02.2024
13 Speeches
The speaker supports entrepreneurship and enhancing export capability, acknowledging that the loss of cheap Russian raw materials has reduced competitiveness. They defend investment subsidies (specifically solar parks) and emphasize that businesses must comply with environmental footprint requirements to remain viable in global supply chains. The speaker also analyzes export barriers, noting that VAT is not the primary concern for exporters.
01.2024
5 Speeches
Economic perspectives focus on the efficiency of public sector spending and the economic motivation for reforms. It is noted that Estonia heavily funds education (6% of GDP), but questions are being raised as to whether this funding is correctly directed to motivate local governments to optimize the network.