The idea of creating a separatist «Narva People's Republic» is spreading on social networks. Over the past month, accounts have appeared on social networks spreading the ideas of separating Narva and Ida-Viru County from Estonia and creating the so-called «Narva People's Republic». Telegram, VKontakte and TikTok have channels called «Narva People's Republic» that use separatist symbols, militaristic imagery and political messages. At first glance, the content looks like a mixture of Internet memes, cat images and provocative jokes. However, upon closer examination, a clear narrative can be seen: Narva is portrayed as a separate political entity and the idea of creating the so-called «Narva People's Republic» is promoted. The description of the channels is quite straightforward: «#We are waiting for Russia. News from the most beautiful state on Earth».

the government is developing a screening mechanism to adhere to the EU Foreign Investment Screening Regulation (Regulation 2019/452) entered into force on 10 April 2019

but the government is currently developing a framework to screen FDI

In Estonia, for example, it takes about a minute to file a tax return.

Estonia's first Smart City Conference took place yesterday in Tartu. Conference brought together more than 100 guests interested in smart-city-themes from 17 different countries over the world.  Presentations: Hannes Astok - Smart Tartu - Today and Tomorrow Toomas Kärner - Global Mobile Megatrends and what Citizens Actually Want Rein Ahas - Big Data and Urban Mobility Andres Osula - Jiffi - the World's First Hands-Free Ticketing Solution for Passengers Francisco Rodriguez and Raimond Tamm - Towards Smart Zero CO2 and Zero Energy Cities across Europe SmartEnCity H2020 lighthouse project - how will citizens of Vitoria, Tartu and Sondeborg benefit and what will be the European impact? Sampo Hietanen - Intelligent Transport System and Mobility as Service for the Citizens Peter Kentie - Marketing Smart Cities - Experiences from Eindhoven

Our mission is to support the development of smart city solutions in order to improve the life quality in the cities, and also to accelerate the export of enterprises. This will be achieved via internationally valued innovation environment, where city authorities and citizens, scientists, enterprises etc. are co-creating smart solutions based on contemporary technologies, that make providing both public and private smart city services more effective and easier to use.

By the year 2020 Estonian Smart City Cluster is internationally known as the leading developer and exporter of smart city solutions that are based on ICT and other technologies.

Main focus areas of the cluster are:1. ICT in different actions and processes of the cities2. ICT and other technologies in developing healthcare and social welfare in an efficient and cost effective way3. Energy saving in building and maintaining different buildings

The activities of the cluster are being co-financed from 2015-2018 by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) via the Enterprise Estonia cluster development programme. The project will last from 1 December 2015 to 30 November 2018 at a total cost of €1,200,000, 50% of which comprises support from the ERDF.