In its 15 years as a member state of the European Union, Estonia has received in excess of €10.4 billion in investment out of the union’s cohesion fund and budget.
Between 2004 and 2020, Estonia has received or is still to receive a total of €9.1 billion out of the EU’s cohesion and investment funds. In addition, since the post-crisis introduction in 2014 of the European Commission Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the “Juncker Plan”, Estonia has received another €1.3 billion in additional investment, the European Commission confirms.
To help new EU members speed up the process of bringing the standard of living as well as salaries to the EU average more quickly, a comprehensive investment and support programme is in place as part of the EU’s integration efforts, in addition also backed by the Juncker plan, the Commission writes in its press materials.
“The results of these investments have been very positive not only thanks to EU funding, but also thanks to the new members’ efforts to carry out reforms and become a more attractive place for businesses and investors,” the Commission further states.
Since the beginning of Jean-Claude Juncker’s stint as president of the European Commission, some 20,800 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have received EU support as well, ERR’s Estonian-language news portal wrote on Wednesday.
The European Union funds projects that contribute to European integration at a rate of up to 75 percent. In fact, since 2014 EU funding has accounted for 44 percent of all of the investment into Estonia’s public sector, and the EU has invested an average €3,362 per Estonian resident out of its cohesion fund.
This, among other things, has meant 293 km of new roads, newly added renewable energy production capability in the amount of 19 megawatts, backed 2,336 science projects and aided in the creation of 20,070 new jobs.
Estonia joined the European Union on May 1, 2004, as one of 10 new member states, along with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, and Cyprus. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007, Croatia followed in 2013.
