The objective of the support measure is to improve the opportunities for people living in Estonia, especially people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds to participate more actively in Estonian society – focusing on improving the availability and quality of integration, education, social welfare services and promoting social innovation.
“Russian war in Ukraine continues. The unprecedented number of refugees who have arrived in Estonia over the past two years continues to challenge us, but also creates many important opportunities. Swiss support enables Estonian residents with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to be offered more equal opportunities – making language learning and counselling services more accessible and introducing Estonian language and culture more widely,” said Minister of Culture Heidy Purga.
The activities of the Ministry of Culture under this support measure are related to cultural and linguistic integration. With the help of Swiss contribution the preparation of digital transformation of integration will be done, volunteers will be involved in integration activities and advisory services on adaptation, including language learning will be developed. The Estonian cultural space will also be introduced and a media literacy programme will be established.
The social inclusion programme will be implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Culture by the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of the Interior. The named ministries will implement activities related to strengthening the social and child protection services, increasing the multilingual and cultural competence in the education sector and strengthening civil society. Bern University of Applied Sciences will be involved into implementation of activities as a Swiss partner.
The total amount of the Swiss-Estonian cooperation programme, which also includes the biodiversity programme of the Ministry of Climate, is nearly 31,4 million euros. The areas to be supported and the precise content of the activities were agreed in bilateral negotiations between Estonia and Switzerland. The national coordination unit of the cooperation programme is the State Shared Service Centre.
