03-04-2020

Estonia Proposes Additional Crisis Funding for Culture and Sports

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    TALLINN: The Estonian Ministry of Culture has put forward a plan to support culture and sports with an additional 25 m EUR to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. The crisis package still needs to be approved by the Estonian Parliament.

    The Ministry of Culture wants to ensure the sustainability of cultural organisations, cover unavoidable costs and support freelance artists and coaches. The focus of the supplementary budget is to alleviate the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus.

    The crisis package will be divided into two parts. Eighty percent of the total would be used to partially compensate for the costs of events and organisations. The remaining 20% is planned for self-employed workers in the culture and sports sector.

    In the culture sector, the biggest amounts of support are divided between film, museums, theatres, music and literature. The film sector will receive 600,000 EUR. The precise measures on how to use the funds are still being developed and are expected to be finalised soon.