East-Viru County support group starts work in parliament

TALLINN - A support group for East-Viru County began work in the Riigikogu on Tuesday, the aim of the group is to foster development in the region that experiences the highest number of problems in Estonia.

The support group, which convened on Katri Raik's initiative, named Dmitri Dmitrijev as its chair and Katri Raik as its deputy chair, spokespeople for the parliament said.

East-Viru County is a distinctive region due to its high unemployment rate, low wages and Russian being the native language of a notable share of the population, and thus also requires more support, Raik said.

"Even more so for the reason that the local people expected much more attention from the coalition agreement than they were actually granted. For instance, it lacks the deadlines and sources for covering expenditure for constructing better roads. There has also been no talk of returning a larger share of oil shale mining resource fees to the county," Raik said.

The East-Viru County support group consists of 17 members from various parliamentary groups.