Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Real Estate

According to unconfirmed information, the Ministry of the Interior has reached an agreement with the trustee in bankruptcy, according to which the purchasing price would be substantially lower than the initial starting price of 500,000 euros.

According to the plan, RKAS would buy the St. Alexander's Church of Narva, after which it would be decided in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture what to do with the building.

At the end of March this year the general meeting of creditors decided to put the building up for auction with a starting price of 500,000 euros, but at the beginning of May the auction was canceled following requests by the Interior Ministry, among others.

A court declared St. Alexander's of Narva bankrupt in April 2015 because of the small congregation's inability to meet the financial obligations taken in connection with the reconstruction of the church building. The bankruptcy petition was filed by the construction company AS Eviko and the congregation's debt at the time it was declared bankrupt allegedly amounted to more than 2.1 million euros.

At the end of March 2016, the general meeting of creditors decided to put the building of St. Alexander's of Narva up for auction with a starting price of 500,000 euros.

Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK) Urmas Viilma announced on April 25 a fundraising campaign to support the bankrupt congregation and salvage its assets.

The government has spent more than 2 million euros to help restore the Lutheran church in the border city now inhabited mostly by Russian-speakers, one million euros of which was provided via a regional competitiveness program of the Enterprise Estonia foundation.