Estonia Aab Transition Tender

At the seminar Green Turn and the Future of Ida-Virumaa held in Narva today it was stated that the transition to a climate-neutral economy is an opportunity to solve the problems that have plagued the region for a long time and to bring a new development perspective.The volume of investment support that will come to Ida-Viru County in the next seven to eight years in connection with a fair transition is significant said Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab . For the first time I see the prospect that Ida-Virumaa which has been grappling with the problem of unemployment since the 1990s now has a real opportunity to really solve this basic problem. New and better paid jobs will be brought to the region while people will be retrained and retrained to move from traditional sectors such as the oil shale industry to new areas and this will create a future perspective for young people as well. Large-scale changes will not only affect the oil shale sector and its employees but the region as a whole. Kadri Simson European Commissioner for EnergyAccording to him the means of a fair transition are intended precisely to implement changes in Ida-Virumaa. However in addition to direct financial support it is also possible to obtain expert support. Estonia is not the only one that has to face the challenges of transition. For some years now with the support of the Commission a platform has been operating to help regions that are abandoning coal. We have now extended it to lignite oil shale and peat and I strongly encourage Estonia to join it said Simson. We have many examples where countries from Poland to Romania and Germany to the Czech Republic have received concrete help in planning for change and creating new opportunities and jobs be it in the energy industry or tourism sectors. I believe that it would be useful for Estonia to learn from the experience of others and to investigate whether and which solutions could work here as well.