Administrative reform in Estonia

[3] Due to political considerations and strong opposition from municipalities, the reform could not be carried out in this form earlier.

The manifesto of the second Taavi Rõivas cabinet which took office in April 2015 mentioned the government's intention to carry out an administrative reform.

[7] The desired results of the reform were to achieve an increase in the role of municipal governments in the organization of social life, the growth of municipal governments' competence, the strengthening of local representative and participatory democracy and the integrity and logic of the territoriality of self-governing units.

Compulsory mergers were initiated for those local government units that had less than 5,000 inhabitants as of 1 January 2017 and to which exceptions could not be applied.

[7] The tasks of the local government unit that received the proposal were as follows: The national government had the obligation to take into account the possible impact on the living conditions of the residents, the quality of public services, administrative capacity, the demographic situation, the organization of transport and communication, the business environment, the state of education and the functioning of the municipality as a single service area.