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Factsheet for case EE-2020-17/355 – Updated – measures in Estonia
Country | Estonia , applies nationwide |
Time period | Temporary, 19 April 2020 – 31 December 2020 |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Income protection beyond short-time work
– Extensions of income support to workers not covered by any kind of protection scheme |
Author | Ingel Kadarik (Praxis Center for Policy Studies) and Eurofound |
Case created | 07 April 2020 (updated 06 January 2021) |
The cultural sector has been strongly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak due to the restrictions on public gatherings and the cancellation of all public cultural events. The Ministry of Culture has proposed a measure to support the freelance creative persons by mitigating the conditions for applying for a support benefit. The support is paid from the Ministry to the artistic associations who use it as 1) support to creative persons engaged in a liberal profession for creative activity and 2) grants for the creative activities of creative persons. Changes to the conditions were made in the Creative Persons and Artistic Associations Act.
The changes are meant for creative persons, who are not in civil service or not employed on the basis of an employment contract or similar contract, and who are active in the following artistic fields:
The support for creative persons must be used solely for creative persons support (and not for grants and trainings) until the end of 2020, in case specifically allowed by the Ministry. Additionally, current eligibility criteria for the support will be relaxed:
These measures will be in force during the emergency situation and six months afterwards.
A total of €4.2 million is used for the measure.
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
30 December 2020 |
The budget was exhausted by October 2020, thus additional €110,000 was allocated for this measure. This ensured that those creative persons who applied for the support before 22 September, received it. Still, there were a number of applications that were not accepted due to the exhausted budget. |
Altogether 960 creative persons received the support. By profession, the subsidy divided as follows:
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Particular professions
|
Does not apply to businesses | Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
Other social actors (e.g. NGOs) |
National funds
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | No involvement as case not in social partner domain | No involvement as case not in social partner domain |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
N.a.
No information to add.
This case is sector-specific
Economic area | Sector (NACE level 2) |
---|---|
R - Arts, Entertainment And Recreation | R90 Creative, arts and entertainment activities |
R93 Sports activities and amusement and recreation activities |
This case is not occupation-specific.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), Subsistence support for freelancers in creative industries, case EE-2020-17/355 (measures in Estonia), COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, http://eurofound.link/covid19eupolicywatch
Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process. All information is preliminary and subject to change.