University of Tartu dean steps down as chair of Estonia's Fiscal Council

TALLINN - Professor of macro-economics Raul Eamets, who was fired from the post of dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tartu on Monday, has tendered his resignation also from the position of chairman of the Fiscal Council, the online news site of public broadcaster ERR reports.

The Fiscal Council is an independent advisory body tasked with assessing Estonia's budget policy. On May 14, 2014, the supervisory board of the Bank of Estonia appointed the first composition of the Fiscal Council with Eamets as chair.

On Monday, Rector of the University of Tartu Toomas Asser decided to terminate the employment contract of Eamets due to the latter entering into a contract on behalf of the university with the Pere Sihtkapital foundation of which he is a member of the supervisory board, thereby allegedly violating several of the university's internal regulations and also the law.

In an interview with Estonian public broadcaster ERR, Eamets admitted that he had violated procedural restrictions when he signed the agreement with the Pere Sihtkapital think tank on behalf of the university and thus opened the door to sensitive personal data of thousands of women.

On Tuesday, the police initiated a misdemeanor procedure against Eamets to investigate whether he may have committed a breach of procedural restrictions.