Correction. Partial establishment means that, in the Piirsalu area, the validity of the previously established plan ceases immediately, and restrictions on immovable property (the Kõuemaru and Tuulemaru registered immovables) arise from the moment of establishment, even though the detailed construction design will follow later — property owners and developers should verify whether the established part is based on a preliminary site selection (in which case it is not yet a basis for a construction design) or constitutes a detailed solution. The Aidu area illustrates another practical risk: the existence of a building right (the building right of Eesti Energia over registered immovables 43801:001:0131 and 43801:001:0132) directly affects the boundaries of the planning area, as the planning area was reduced when no relinquishment of the building right was available, and expanded again when the holder approached the Ministry of Climate to terminate the building right — accordingly, before including immovables in a planning area, third parties' rights in rem must first be verified, because their alteration compels a change to the planning solution and restarts the entire procedure: coordination of the amended planning documents, seeking the opinions of interested parties, a new public display and public discussion. The SEA measures (avoidance, mitigation, compensation) are legally binding conditions whose fulfilment is a precondition for the lawful implementation of the activity; ignoring them in the design stage therefore constitutes a separate source of legal dispute. It is worth monitoring whether the superordinate plan will likewise be established only in part in respect of the Aidu area, and whether the supplementary assessment of the impacts of the expansion leads to a supplementing of the SEA.
"By an order of the Government of the Republic, the Ministry of Defence was tasked with investigating the need to bring the Piirsalu and Aidu preliminary selection areas into use no later than within five years of the issuance of the order."
"Upon the establishment of a national designated spatial plan, the validity of a previously established plan, or part thereof, for the planning area covered thereby is suspended," and the amendments are entered into the plans within 60 days of establishment.
In the Piirsalu area, the establishment of an explosives factory may proceed, as the Government of the Republic partially established the superseded national designated spatial plan (eriplaneering) by Order No. 169 of 09.10.2026, while the Aidu area remains under procedural review. The decisive point for the reader is that the established designated plan alters the legal basis for land use: pursuant to subsection 53 (2) of the Planning Act, the validity of a previously established plan for the planning area covered by the designated plan is suspended. In the Piirsalu area in Lääne-Nigula Municipality, an explosives factory is planned on approximately 74 hectares, including buildings, storage facilities and infrastructure, and according to the Ministry of Defence, no noise-generating test site is planned there. Legally, the solution rests on subsection 27 (1) of the Planning Act, under which a national designated spatial plan is prepared for a building with significant spatial impact where there is a substantial national interest in the choice of its location — here, in the field of national defence, which is why the initiator is the Ministry of Defence (subsection 27 (7)).
The designated plan procedure has followed subsection 28 (1) of the Planning Act: it is initiated by the Government of the Republic, which occurred here by Order No. 40 of 15.02.2024, together with the mandatory strategic environmental assessment (subsection 27 (6)). As regards the Aidu area, the principle corresponding to subsection 40 (3) applies: where amendments made as a result of the public display and discussion alter the basic design solutions of the plan or require a substantial revision of the SEA report, the consultation with government agencies is repeated and a new public display and discussion are organised — this is precisely what the approximately 50-hectare expansion of the Aidu area envisages. As regards Piirsalu, the establishment has taken place on the basis of a preliminary selection, and it therefore serves as the basis for issuing design specifications pursuant to subsection 26¹ (1) of the Building Code and section 27¹ of the Planning Act. The development and administration of the Piirsalu defence industry park, including the handling of ammunition and explosive materials, has been assigned to the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments under point 13² of its statutes. Behind the expansion of the Aidu area lies a real-property law issue: Eesti Energia was required to relinquish its superficies (building rights) on the parcels Kohtla metskond 201 and Uus-Kiviõli conveyor, which previously restricted the preliminary selection area; the company has now approached the Ministry of Climate to terminate the superficies.
In the Piirsalu area, the next step is the issuance of design specifications and the preparation of the construction design; when implementing the plan, the SEA avoidance, mitigation and compensation measures must be observed.
Food information must be truthful, comply with the requirements established by legal acts, and must not mislead the food business operator or the consumer.
Altering labelling without altering the actual properties of the food is deemed food adulteration, except for the clarification of labelling and the correction of misleading labelling.
For producers, a situation lies ahead in which the use of Nutri-Score remains legally impermissible until the minister has finally adopted the regulation. The core of the news is that the responsible minister is exercising the power granted by the Food Act to establish requirements for the provision of food information by food groups. The legal question addressed by the draft regulation is whether, and under what conditions, additional information may be used on food labelling that is not mandatory under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The basis of the power is subsection 38 (4) of the Food Act, under which the minister responsible for the sector establishes, by regulation, requirements for the provision of food information by food group or method of processing. Subsection 38 (2) of the same Act requires that food information be truthful, comply with the requirements of legal acts, and not mislead the food business operator or the consumer. Accordingly, what is at stake for the producer is not a sanction as such, but the limits of permissible labelling content, which will be specified by the regulation.
Once the regulation enters into force, the producer acquires a voluntary right to use the Nutri-Score mark, analogous to the certification logic described in subsection 37 (2) of the Food Act as a voluntary procedure the costs of which are borne by the applicant. The producer's continuing obligation is that all labelling comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 and the language requirement of subsection 38 (3) of the Food Act — information must be provided in Estonian unless it is otherwise comprehensible to the consumer. Likewise, the addition of a substance to food or its processing in order to conceal a lower value falls within the adulteration referred to in point 3 of § 20 of the Food Act — this also applies where the labelling presents the food more favourably than it actually is. Under clause 26 (1) 7 of the Food Act, the law enforcement authority is entitled to verify the provision of food information, and accordingly the correctness of the use of the mark falls within the food business operator's area of responsibility under subsection 21 (1) of the Food Act. Among the sources there is no case law, and therefore the adjudication practice for similar disputes cannot be assessed on the basis of the materials presented.
In practice, this is significant above all for the food industry, which will be able to use the mark as a marketing tool once the regulation enters into force, but must ensure that the calculation underlying the mark corresponds to the actual composition of the food; otherwise a risk of adulteration and misleading information arises. For the consumer, this means additional information about the nutritional properties of food, which must be truthful and comprehensible. On the supervisory side, this means that if the labelling proves to be misleading, the law enforcement authority may verify the provision of the information and the food business operator must correct the misleading labelling. The procedural point to monitor is the following: the draft regulation will now be sent for harmonisation and consultation, and the final adoption of the regulation and its date of entry into force will become clear only after that stage.
Correction. The article's claim that "for a local authority, VAT is nevertheless a real cost that flows into the state budget" is incomplete. VAT is a real cost for the local authority only in a situation where the local authority has no right to deduct or reclaim input VAT and the VAT is not compensated in any other way – this condition must be expressly stated in the claim. Where the local authority can recover input VAT, VAT does not constitute an additional cost of the purchase, and in that case the tax argument in favour of creating its own unit has no basis.
Under subsection 2 of Section 2 of the food sector decree, a vital service provider must ensure food supply for at least the 72 hours immediately following the interruption of operations.
Subsection 2² of Section 2 of the Local Government Organisation Act, entering into force on 01.10.2026, makes it the task of the local government unit to ensure preparedness for crises in accordance with the Emergency Situation and National Defence Act.
Tartu's decision to take over roughly one third of street maintenance for the city to organise itself means that the city is exercising its authority to manage local life matters on its own initiative, rather than fulfilling a statutory obligation to establish an entity in the form of a vital service provider. The core of the news is the growth in costs (EUR 3.8 million in 2020, EUR 9.5 million in 2026) and a market with few suppliers, to which the city is responding by establishing a subsidiary. Legally, this choice rests on subsection 3 of Section 2 of the Local Government Organisation Act, under which a local government unit decides and organises matters that the law has not assigned to the decision-making of any other body. Subsection 2² of the same Section 2, which entered into force on 01.10.2026, imposes on the local government unit the obligation to ensure preparedness for crises in accordance with the Emergency Situation and National Defence Act and the legislation adopted on its basis. Under point 12 of subsection 1 of Section 9 of the Emergency Situation and National Defence Act, the local government unit has the task of organising the continuity of vital services to the extent provided for in Section 82. However, the vital service regime does not apply automatically: the sources contain descriptions of vital services established in the areas of food supply, ports and healthcare, and street maintenance is not named within the scope of regulation of any decree. Accordingly, Tartu's maintenance unit is, for the time being, a voluntary form of organisation, not a legally designated vital service provider.
Where a city establishes a subsidiary, the latter operates in a relationship of subordination to the city government, which means that workforce resources can be redirected without a procurement, contract amendment or separate agreement. In tax terms, no value added tax is added to the payroll costs of its own employees, whereas purchasing the service from a private company increases the local government's costs by the amount of VAT. If a particular service were in the future designated as vital, specific obligations would accrue to the provider: under subsection 1 of Section 46⁵ of the Food Act, the provider must ensure the service at the designated time, in the designated volume and at the designated price; under subsection 2 of Section 2 of the food sector decree, for at least 72 hours after the interruption of operations; under subsection 2 of Section 4, a ready-to-use reserve system must be in place; and under Section 5, recovery must be initiated without delay. Under subsection 4 of Section 82 of the Emergency Situation and National Defence Act, the provider must, upon demand, provide the designated authority with information on the provision of the service and implement continuity measures, including reducing dependence on suppliers and duplicating essential resources. In the event of a extensive disruption of a vital service, resolution is led by the continuity organiser in accordance with the crisis plan, and in the event of a disruption affecting several regions, the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture participates in coordination.
In practice, the decision is significant for three parties: for the city, which expects savings of approximately one million euros per year and greater crisis preparedness; for the existing service providers, who retain the larger share of maintenance but lose part of the market; and for other suppliers, for whom strict requirements (a maintenance base, an experienced team) will remain a barrier to entry. The city plans an investment of approximately five million euros in maintenance equipment and a base, the justification of which will be assessed over the entire service life of the assets. In the city's view, a reliable assessment of the savings will only be possible in a few years' time, once the change in the proportion of street maintenance in the costs of the city's core activities can be seen. The Tartu City Maintenance base is planned on the second bank of the Emajõgi River with the possibility of autonomous operational continuity, and this is to be evaluated after a few years on the basis of accumulated cost statistics.
Food as a means of procuring supplies for residents, and its price, is a political and debatable question; however, a legal amendment entered into force on 1 October 2026 that transforms the supply of food into a state-supervised and supply-policy task, rather than merely a matter of goods to be resolved by the market. The discussion described in the news item concerns VAT and price levels, while at the same time Chapter 7^1 "Food Supply" [RT I, 30.06.2026, 1] has been added to the Food Act, under which § 46^1 provides that measures are applied to ensure the supply of food both under the Food Act and under the Emergency Situation and State of Defence Act. Pursuant to subsection 1 (1) of the Food Act, the scope of regulation of the Act includes, in addition to the bases for food handling, the operator's self-monitoring and state supervision, also "measures for ensuring the supply of food", so that the question of supply is embedded in full-fledged legal regulation, not merely in political rhetoric. In practice, this means that food availability is not only a question of consumer prices, but a lasting legal obligation which the state must be able to fulfil also in an emergency situation. This amendment imposes new obligations on undertakings and grants the state new powers to act.
The environment and agriculture are regulated on a multi-level basis. Under subsection 46^1 (2) of the Food Act, during an emergency situation the supply of food to the population is ensured to the extent necessary to satisfy the population's basic needs; thus, the scope of assurance is legally defined as the satisfaction of basic needs, not the satisfaction of any demand for foodstuffs whatsoever. For this purpose, the state also uses the food reserve provided for in § 46^7, which belongs to the state's operating reserve; the food reserve includes food and may include grain and a reserve of such a product as is necessary for an undertaking as a production input for the production of feed for animals kept for the purpose of producing food or food of animal origin. Under subsection 46^7 (3), the minister responsible for the field may, by regulation, establish the quantities of the food reserve, the proportion of the quantities or the more detailed composition of the reserve, as well as the bases for the purchase and renewal of the food reserve, which means that the concretisation of the composition of the reserve is a matter for a delegated act, not fixed in a single form in the statute. The description of the vital service and the requirements for continuity of operation in the case of food supply are established by a regulation of the Minister of Rural Affairs and Agriculture, the version of which also entered into force on 01.10.2026, and the said regulation is based on subsection 82 (6) of the Emergency Situation and State of Defence Act and subsection 46^5 (2) of the Food Act. Looking at the political discussion in the news item, it must be emphasised that the question of reducing VAT is a matter of tax law, and the food supply regulation referred to above does not directly burden it; consequently, these two instruments cannot normatively be regarded as equivalent.
Going forward, it is significant that a ministerial regulation concerning the composition of the food reserve and the bases for its purchase is discretionary, and that the specific content of the scope of protection of the vital service will begin to take shape in practice through supervisory and implementation practice. For undertakings, this means an opportunity to define permanent crisis tasks and to exert influence over the management of the food reserve. A new ministerial regulation on the quantities of the food reserve and the bases for its purchase remains pending, which subsection 46^7 (3) of the Food Act makes possible.