News.

In March 2015, Helme rural municipality proposed the initiation of amalgamation negotiations to its neighboring municipalities, to which Tõrva, Hummuli and Põdrala municipalities replied positively. After that, the negotiations have been continually progressing: several meetings with municipality leaders, establishment of negotiation working groups, preparation of the area’s demographic and social-economic situational analysis and...

On 21st of October 2016 a vision conference took place in the conference hall of Valga’s Centre for Culture and Extracurricular Activities. The conference’s objective was to display a sense of community during the municipality amalgamation, to ease the amalgamation related fears and discuss the future perspectives for Karula, Taheva, Tõlliste and Õru rural municipalities...

Implement Consulting Group OÜ, Cumulus Consulting OÜ and Geomedia OÜ won the tender by Enterprise Estonia and will initiate the training for local government leaders. The target group are municipality council leaders and local government leaders. The practical program offers its participants the opportunity to gain new knowledge, make use...

The Estonian village movement Kodukant conducts amalgamation reform seminars in the Estonian counties. It is important that the discussion on the municipalities’ future does not only stay at the local government and municipality council level, but that village and community representatives would also participate. Under the leadership of Kodukant Harjumaa, the role of villages in...

The amalgamation negotiation group met on the 24th of September in Põltsamaa municipality center. At the meeting, the compilation of the amalgamation contract and the precise arrangements of the negotiations were discussed. The general provisions of the contract were debated, amalgamation objectives formulated and the participants arrived at common positions...

On the 3rd of November 2016, RegPol2 Team Estonia organized a national workshop under the title “Core-Periphery Relations between Discourses and Practices: Estonia and Beyond”. In the course of this workshop, six researchers from Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada introduced local academics and practitioners to the first results of their research work on peripheralization...

On the 23rd of September 2015, Geomedia introduced its management and work organization analysis at the joint seminar for public officials of Viimsi municipality. The analysis was conducted based on the public sector evaluation model of the Common Assessment Framework (EIPA, 2013) and the European Excellence Model (EFQM). Moreover, for...

Organized by the Estonian Ministry of Finance and the Johan Skytte Policy Research institute of the University of Tartu a conference under the title “Far-sighted state” took place on November 9-10, 2016 at the Estonian National Museum, which was directed to the middle management of Estonian public offices. The central topic was change management...

Helme, Hummuli, Põdrala rural municipalities and Tõrva city have reached the final stage of local government amalgamation negotiations. From 21st of April until 12th of May 2016 all interested parties can acquaint themselves with the amalgamation project and submit proposals, opinions, comments and objections to it. At the same time,...

In the framework of the RegPol2 project, Geomedia employee and PhD candidate Bianka Plüschke-Altof participated in the 5th Euroacademia International Conference, which took place in Riga on January, 29-30, 2016. The conference was held under the motto “Re-inventing Eastern Europe” and organized in seven panels, ranging from identity and peripheralization...