FES office in Estonia

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) has been represented in Estonia since 1993, with its office in the country’s capital, Tallinn. The office is led by an academic employee of the foundation, and is coordinated from the regional office for the Baltic States in Riga.

More than 25 years after regaining independence, Estonia has a stable democracy and is securely anchored in the European community. Party competition in Estonia is highly dynamic, leading to frequent changes in its government. In addition to low public trust in political parties, the readiness for social and political involvement among most citizens is lacking.

Initially, the core fields of FES activity lay in accompanying political and economic transformation processes in Estonia; currently it is confronted with new economic, social and geopolitical challenges that are included in the projects that FES carries out in the country. Although, Estonia shines as a pioneer and generator of ideas for a consistent digitisation strategy in Europe, the country’s transformation processes have not been completed since its accession to the EU in 2004. Specifically, the implementation of European economic and social standards is still to a large degree insufficient. Estonia has the lowest national debt in the EU and is one of Europe’s most competitive countries; however, income disparity in the country has significantly widened over the years, the poverty level is far above the European average and the Estonian flat tax system offers limited options for solidarity-based distribution of wealth.

Economically sustainable and especially socially just growth policies are gaining support among political and social partners quite slowly, but FES supports all the parties in the social dialogue with the goal of strengthening the Estonian social state.

Similarly to other Baltic States, Estonia’s foreign policy is directed by security interests, especially with respect to Russia. In its projects related to this, the FES office in Estonia focuses in particular on developing a European foreign and security policy, and including Russian perspectives and representatives in discussions that concern security policy.

It is the goal of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation to help strengthen political participation and civil society through dialogue, political education and consulting, stimulating the necessary discourse over a socially just economic policy and promoting international dialogue in matters of Estonia’s European integration and exchange in terms of a common European foreign and security policy.

Related Events

Thursday, 05.03.2020 - Thursday, 05.03.2020 | Estonia, Democracy and civil society | Event

On March 5th, 2020 the conference „Women in politics 100+“ took part in Tallinn. The occasion of this conference has been the International women`s…


More

Thursday, 04.04.2019 - Saturday, 06.04.2019 | Estonia, Strong and solidarity-based Europe | Event

Estonia joined NATO 15 years ago. On April 4th NATO celebrated its 70 years anniversary.


More

| Latvia, Estonia, Democracy and civil society | Event

One hundred years ago Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were founded. What role did the social-democratic parties play in the founding of the republics…


More

Recent Publications

Estland : Gewerkschaftsmonitor

Estland : Gewerkschaftsmonitor

Berlin, 2023, 2021:

Download publication


Litauen : Gewerkschaftsmonitor

Litauen : Gewerkschaftsmonitor

Berlin, 2023, 2021:

Download publication


Lithuania : trade union monitor

Lithuania : trade union monitor

Berlin, 2023-

Download publication


Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Baltic States

Estonia Office
Pärnu mnt. 27-13
10141 Tallinn

Contact us

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Facebook

To learn more about FES Baltic and our most recent activities follow us and like our Facebook Page. More

FES Baltic on Youtube

FES Baltic on Youtube

Discover videos from our designated Youtube-Playlist on the FES Channel. More

back to top