Education and Science, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Funds, Investments

"That money is non-repayable EU support to Estonia. If we didn't get that money, we would have had to borrow money or raise taxes to make these investments," Finance Minister Sven Sester said at a conference on Wednesday.

"Instead, we were able to overhaul the facilities of Estonian kindergartens, schools, vocational schools, universities and research institutions, for instance. We were able to furnish their buildings with new equipment and invest in our people's know-how and skills on the labor market," he said.

Sester said Estonia has been very efficient using EU support, as only two cents was needed in Estonia in the past budgetary period to pay out one euro in EU structural support. The Estonian error margin in the use of EU support in 2014 was 0.13%, compared with the EU average margin of 5.7%.

The structural support awarded to Estonia in the 2007–2013 budgetary period could be used until the end of 2015. In addition more than 0.8 billion euros in agricultural and fishery support was made available to Estonia.