Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Transport

"Prime Minister Ratas in 2017 used chartered flights on 10 occasions. Most of the flights were connected with the presidency of the Council of the European Union and participating in the European Council," government press officer Urmas Seaver told BNS.

"Chartered flights are always used by way of exception, if the working schedule does not allow one to reach all necessary meetings on time by scheduled flights. Chartered flights clearly make up a smaller portion of the prime minister's foreign visits, as a rule the prime minister uses scheduled flights," Seaver said.

A total of 273,100 euros was spent on the chartered flights of the prime minister and his team last year.

Chartered flights of previous prime minister Taavi Roivas in 2016 cost altogether 85,845 euros and he used a private aircraft on four occasions, while the cost of five chartered flights in 2015 was 96,600 euros.

While Roivas' flights were all connected with going to Brussels, only three of the ten chartered flights of Ratas were made to Brussels, which is why the average cost of the flights of Ratas was higher than that of Roivas, Seaver said.

"Ratas' flights were more expensive on average, as the flights were longer in distance and time, many flights had several destinations, they went to several countries," he said.

Ratas' chartered flights in 2017 occurred from May to December and most of them were to southern Europe -- Greece, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Turkey, and during one flight that encompassed the countries of eastern Europe, five stopovers were made to meet with the prime ministers of Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania.

"The largest contribution to the number of chartered flights last year was that in relation to the presidency, the prime minister during the year met with leaders of all European Union member states. The active visiting of member states is good custom, which is necessary for preparing for the presidency and successfully conducting it. This gave the prime minister an opportunity to introduce to his counterparts the priorities of the Estonian presidency and listen to the expectations and thoughts of other countries for the upcoming six months," Seaver said.

"The prime minister on his missions visited countries, whose leaders did not have separate meetings in Estonia or Brussels ahead of the presidency," the prime minister's spokesperson said.

The expenses of the prime minister's chartered flights were covered from the state's budget, 236,100 euros came from the budget of the Estonian EU presidency and 37,000 euros from the budget of the prime minister's office.