Analytics, Estonia, Legislation, Pensioners, Society

"The Estonian state is paying pensions and it raises pensions every year, and a fact is that we are paying an extra on these pensions directly from the state budget. And let me say out the truth in front of you here now that the pension system has to be reformed," Tsahkna said in parliament during question time.

"The numbers that we have in front of us in this initial analysis are such that our pension system is not sustainable in the long term and the reason behind it is primarily demographics," Tsahkna said answering a question from Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) deputy Raivo Poldaru. 

"According to forecasts, if nothing changes, if we don't start having more children, by the year 2060, which is not a long time at all when it comes to the pension system, our population will have declined from 1.31 million to 1.1 million. As far as working age people are concerned, their number will have declined by 32% or 256,000 by that time. And at the same time the number of people of retirement age will grow by 106,000 or 41%," Tsahkna said.

These numbers demonstrate that Estonia needs to carry out a very serious analysis of the sustainability of its pension system. "And we must be bold enough to make necessary decisions," he said.