News.

Geomedia successfully applied to the tender on „Local Government Units’ Amalgamation conducive Expert Service Rendering“ by Enterprise Estonia (EAS). As a result of the tender, Geomedia consultant Rivo Noorkõiv was elected to advise local governments with the wish to amalgate. Altogether, seven consultants were elected, which in cooperation with the...

Under the lead of Pärnu municipality government’s union, a county council was initiated in Kilingi-Nõmme (Saarde parish) on the 26th of September 2014. The meeting was also an anniversary, as the county council has been held already for the fifth time. This time, the objective was the renewal of Pärnumaa...

When considering local government amalgamation, financial management aspects are among important matters. In Viljandi’s case, the focus was set on two questions: 1) would the amalgamation enable achieving better access / quality of local government services to its inhabitants? 2) would the amalgamation improve the investment capability of the local...

In cooperation of Geomedia and Kadrina municipality, a training course focusing on the design and update of development plans was organized for different interest groups. The objective was to harmonize the understanding and knowledge of developing and implementing development plans as well as to achieve the support of target groups...

Tartu municipality’s five local governments – Tartu city, Luunja parish, Tartu parish, Tähtvere parish and Ülenurme parish – in cooperation with Geomedia are drawing up Tartu’s urban region sustainable development plan 2014-2020, which marks coordinated efforts to strengthen the people’s living quality and to grow the region’s competitive strength. The...

In the framework of the RegPol² project, Geomedia took part in the 4th Winter School in Methods and Techniques, which took place from 13th February – 20th February 2015 in the university town of Bamberg. The winter school was organized by the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and offered...

The Local Government Capacity Index considers the ESPON program’s territorial development and observatory network publication “Estonia’s colours on European maps” (2014). ESPON offers a comparative regional evaluation of territorial trends and development monitoring, expert analysis and future scenarios. Geomedia took part in the ESPON program project work “Territorial Monitoring for...

The ITN RegPol² is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme with the objective of preparing 16 young researchers for careers in academia, public administration, NGOs and the private sector. The research topics within the project focus on a better understanding of the development of regional disparities between metropolised...

For the training of local government officials, so far there is no central institution in Estonia. Hence, the trainings are mainly influenced by a market-driven model. The trends show that the driving forces for in-service training are, above all, the changing demands of the professional work, developments in technology and the growth of network-based...

Organized by the Ministry of Finance, a conference took place on 20th of October in Marjamaa, focusing on experiences and lessons learned from amalgamation processes and on ways to carry out the proposed local government reform. Presentations were given by local government officials and representatives of different organizations, who analyzed...