By Plenary Sessions: Rain Epler

The economic aspects are presented via a regulatory impact assessment, focusing on how achieving the bill's objective affects the costs and complexity for individuals and businesses. He/She wants to know what will become more expensive and complicated, and what will become cheaper and simpler.

The speaker is concerned about the state budget shrinking and criticizes the government's policies that are making Estonia poor. He advocates for fiscal discipline and criticizes the inefficient use of the congestion fee, arguing that it should be spent on eliminating bottlenecks in Northern Estonia in order to lower electricity prices.

Data is scarce.

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It strongly opposes tax hikes, especially the car tax, arguing that it burdens families and people living in rural areas. It advocates for increased prosperity and the protection of private property, criticizing policies associated with the green transition as generating poverty and imposing restrictions. It uses economic data (salaries, benefits) to demonstrate that child benefits fail to offset the overall tax burden.

The economic views are strongly pro-entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of competitiveness and investment certainty, which requires sufficient and accessible energy. The speaker criticizes the fast-track increase of taxes, duties, and fees, as well as the complication of regulations without involving businesses. He supports industrial investments that help add value to wood locally and recycle plastic.

The economic perspective emphasizes fiscal responsibility and the immediate funding of long-term expenses (such as disposal or decommissioning) to prevent future state liabilities. It supports preserving the autonomy of the Estonian tax system and expresses concern regarding the potential misuse of the social welfare system (specifically through wage optimization schemes) that could burden the Health Insurance Fund. Furthermore, it is interested in assessing the financial impact of international treaties on the state budget.

The economic views center on the availability and price of energy, emphasizing the need for cheap, accessible electricity. He/She criticizes policies that make electricity more expensive and demands a competitive price compared to Finland. This indicates concern about the country's economic competitiveness.

The speaker stresses that for industrial development, abundant, affordable, accessible, and weather-independent electricity is essential. He considers nuclear energy to be more economically and energetically viable than the combination of renewables and storage. He prefers using oil shale as an energy bridge to transition to nuclear power, rather than gas, which creates dependence on international supply chains.

It favors taxing extraordinary profits (a bank tax) to fill the state coffers, opposing tax hikes that burden families and businesses. It expresses concern that regulations and tax increases are strangling Estonian entrepreneurship. The overall stance is rather fiscally conservative, preferring that the money goes into the profits of Estonian companies rather than into the hands of the government.