Central
The Ministry of Culture is responsible for organising and coordinating state cultural policy. Its task is to ensure that necessary and favourable conditions, both legislative and financial, are created for the functioning of culture, heritage and sports from the culture professionals' as well as the general public's point of view.
The responsibilities of the central government are:
- Strategies and monitoring frameworks;
- Cultural performance spaces;
- Adjusting higher education in cultural field with the needs of society and demographical changes and making it internationally competitive;
- Co-opting professional associations to the decision making process in the cultural field;
- Establishing transparent funding and responsible usage of the architectural infrastructure;
- Supporting creative enterprises and technological services with international and private funding;
- Improving the legal conditions of independent cultural workers (including access to public health insurance);
- Supporting creative and cultural industries as a part of a knowledge based economy;
- Digitalising cultural heritage in correlation with international standards;
- Specifying responsibilities and tasks between local governments and the state;
- Improving access to cultural participation for people with special needs;
- Literature and publishing;
- Theatre and cinema;
- Music;
- Fine arts;
- Folk art;
- Museums;
- Libraries;
- Cultural heritage, in particular organising heritage conservation work, exercising state supervision over monuments and heritage conservation areas and maintaining the national register of cultural monuments;
- Creative industries;
- Broadcasting and audio-visual policy;
- Copyright and neighbouring rights;
- Cultural diversity and integration;
- International Co-operation.
Measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 virus outbreak in culture and audio-visual sector in Estonia: crisis package of 25 million euros in the field of culture and sport provided by Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Regional
No competencies identified at the regional level.
Local
Local authorities are responsible for:
- Libraries;
- Community centres;
- Museums;
Heritage conservation, in particular maintaining records on immovable monuments in their territory, making proposals to the National Heritage Board to place things of cultural value under temporary protection, observing the heritage reservation requirements arising from the Heritage Reservation Act in the performance of their duties and informing the National Heritage Board of any violations of this Act.
Responsible ministries/bodies
National Heritage Board, only in Estonian
Ministry of Cultural Affairs
Sources
General Principles of the Cultural Policy up to 2020
Compendium,
Culture Profile, Estonia
Heritage Conservation Act
Local Government Organisation Act
