Estonia, Investments, Legislation, Markets and Companies

Next specialists from the State Shared Service Center and the ministries of finance and the environment will check the offers for compliance with the terms of the procurement. Considering the processing requirements set out in the Public Procurement Act, the winner of the procurement is expected to be announced by mid-February, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

The aim is to ensure that experts with necessary competences are involved in clarifying the circumstances of the planning process. The Ministry of the Environment will help make sure that the competences of the teams of the tenderers meet the valid requirements also when it comes to the environment.

"I wish to disprove the notion that initiating a plan or finding experts by means of a public procurement tender is tantamount to a decision on establishing the plant. It is only in the course of the forthcoming planning process that it will start to be found out whether and where, and under what conditions is it possible to establish the plant, considering the impacts that this will bring with it," said Tiit Oidjarv, head of the planning department at the Finance Ministry.

"Initiating a national designated spatial plan does not mean making a decision on the establishment of the plant, as the decision about whether or not to establish the plant can be made by the government after the effects -- such as the environmental impact -- have been found out, which will happen in the course of drawing up the plan. No decisions, including about where the plant could be built or similar, have been  made," Oidjarv said.

The government in mid-May 2017 initiated the procedure of a national designated spatial plan with a view to building a one billion euro pulp mill not far from Emajogi River in South Estonia and also decided to initiate the procedure of strategic environmental assessment of the project.

"The purpose of the national designated spatial plan is to find the most suitable location for the establishment of a wood refinery and the infrastructure necessary for its operation in the immediate neighborhood of Emajogi River in Viljandi County and Tartu County and to set out a detailed solution for determining the building rights in the suitable location," it stands in the order of the government.

Est-For Invest is planning to build a one billion euro pulp mill near Tartu in southern Estonia, which would process approximately 3.3 million tons of pulpwood a year and export its output. Building the mill would create approximately 200 new jobs.

According to the initial forecast, the mill would start production in 2022. The planned average production capacity is up to 750,000 tons of bio products a year.