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According to Minister of Public Administration Arto Aas the government reached a consensus regarding the administrative reform. "Thank you to everybody. A piece of history," Aas said on social media.

"The main goal of the administrative reform is to guarantee public services and stronger municipalities around the whole Estonia," Prime Minister Taavi Roivas said. He added that public services directly influence everybody.

According to the bill the minimum size of a municipality would be 5,000 residents and the government's goal is to reach municipalities with at least 11,000 residents.

"We recognize municipalities that have taken initiative to merge. When a merger agreement hasn't been reached by Jan. 1, 2017 the government will make the decision," Aas said.

According to Aas at present talks are ongoing in 26 different regions which will hopefully result in municipalities with more than 11,000 residents.

Municipalities that merge voluntarily will get bigger merger support. If the new municipal entity has more than 5,000 residents, all mergers will get double merger support or 100 euros per resident.

The government decided to raise the support being paid for the formation of a municipality with more than 11,000 residents to 500,000 euros. If a whole county merges, it will be advantageous in the future when applying for national investments.

The bill is the first stage of carrying out the administrative reform. The law would determine the minimum size of a municipality, including exceptions, as well as the rules and regulations for changing the administrative-territorial organization.

The second stage of the reform includes law amendments regarding municipalities' tasks and funding.

The aim of the reform is to increase municipalities' capabilities to offer quality public services.

At present 182 of Estonia's 213 municipalities are in merger talks.