Reducing bureaucracy in cooperation with the private sector (EE0068)

Activity 2.4. Reducing bureaucracy in cooperation with the private sector

We will gather and implement proposals made by entrepreneurs and discussed by the Council for Efficiency and Economic Growth for reducing regulations and bureaucracy. We will perform analyses and monitoring in order to support effective government decision-making and ensure transparent impact evaluation. We will make reporting fully data-based, so that entrepreneurs will only need to submit their data once and the state will manage their future processing.

Problem definition

Bureaucracy in the public sector is too demanding according to entrepreneurs and the public, and reduces the effectiveness of cooperation. Estonian legal persons have submitted around 700 proposals for reducing bureaucracy. Although these initiatives are important, they require a more systematic framework for both presenting ideas and implementing them, so changes become permanent. The Open Government Partnership action plan provides a framework for reducing bureaucracy sustainably on the one hand, and a platform for implementing proposals from entrepreneurs and civil society organisations in a transparent and inclusive way on the other.

Estonian entrepreneurs, and civil society organisations to some extent, have to do a lot of reporting work: information needs to be presented to various institutions repeatedly and in different formats. Statistics Estonia, the Tax and Customs Board, the Agricultural Registers and Information board and others collect data in parallel, creating thousands of hours of extra work for enterprises. New solutions could decrease the work of reporting by millions of hours for entrepreneurs. Feedback shows that their biggest problem is having to submit data repeatedly and the parallel nature of systems and forms.

Strategical planning processes and monitoring, including indicators, are fragmented among various documents and systems. Information is not accessible in one place, work processes are time-consuming and preparing reports is mainly done by manual labour. Many reports are prepared manually and require searching for data from many sources, which is time-consuming and inefficient

Causes of the problem

Proposals from different groups are not always collated or related to the governing process. The work processes of the public sector are fragmented. Bureaucratic requirements in some areas - reporting, safety, specialist licenses - are especially burdensome. Implementing proposals is slow and the impact of outputs is not clearly measurable or visible. The regular feedback and implementation (automatic, data-based) monitoring system needs improving, which would ensure a stable change in cooperation with entrepreneurs. The council's work is supported by the Government Office and other institutions, but the broader and systematic implementation of results requires a better process.

Reporting systems are designed according to the institutions' needs, not the user experience. There are no unified taxonomies or interfaces that would enable data to be automatically forwarded. The public sector's information systems are not integrated enough and the same data fields need to be filled in multiple times. Regulations don't support the principle of non-duplication of data. All of this reduces entrepreneurs' time to focus on their main activities.

Different development plans, programmes and reporting forms are used inconsistently within internal and external networks. There is no unified framework that would provide a transparent overview of goals and the monitoring of their results. The lack of consistency between information systems and lack of metadata make relevant and exact data harder to access. Indicators are not collated into a unified system and they lack standard metadata. The information systems are not connected, so the same data needs to be found and input multiple times. Checking for relevance is often difficult and it isn't always evident which version is the latest and valid one.

What has been done to solve the problem

A state reform including de-regulation has been under discussion for decades. One of the first systematic initiatives was the creation of the Estonian Cooperation Assembly's State Management Plan 2013-2015. In the following years, a State Reform Foundation made up of constitutional law experts and entrepreneurs prepared vision documents and proposals emphasising the need to analyse and re- organise the functions and structure of the central government, constitutional institutions and local government. A more detailed overview of previous initiatives and their results can be found in the analysis prepared by the Ministry of Finance¹³

In March 2025, the Council for Efficiency and Economic Growth (hereinafter Council of Entrepreneurs) was established at the initiative of the Prime Minister, with the Government Office as its secretariat. The council's task is to make concrete proposals to the Prime Minister for de-regulation, reducing requirements and bureaucracy and steps that would facilitate economic growth. The council is largely focused on four areas: planning, reporting, public sector monitoring, unnecessary requirements and regulations. As of September 2025, 663 proposals have been submitted, of which 122 have been supported by the Government of the Republic and 14 have been implemented.

We have begun with developing data-based reporting (APA), with the aim of creating unified taxonomies and machine to machine interfaces. 15 projects decreasing administrative burden are underway, including an investment of 2.6 million euros by Tax and Customs Board into developing new TSD, KMD and TÖR solutions. Some surveys have already been analysed and solutions are being tested (e.g. accommodation provider reports). State datasets will be used to replace repeating surveys.

A strategic planning framework has been created that is based on the State Budget Act and the regulation for preparing development plans and programmes. In addition, an environment that collates strategic planning and reporting processes has recently been developed.

Solution

The Council of Entrepreneurs submits proposals to the government for reducing bureaucracy and increasing the efficiency of the public sector. The role of the Government Office and other government institutions is providing evaluations and performing analyses in order for the government to make reasoned decisions (e.g. reducing duplication of data, increasing the speed of planning processes or simplifying work safety regulations). An important part of the process is the monitoring and transparency of implementation, wherein the Government Office monitors which proposals make it into government decisions and evaluates their impact. The monitoring of proposals ensures that information is published in a way that is easily understandable for those who do not deal with topics like this on an everyday basis. It also ensures that proposals submitted by the council are implemented according to legislative involvement procedures.

To implement data-based reporting, reporting must be done fully based on data: the legal person submits their data once, into one system, and the state organises any subsequent data forwarding. The most frequently submitted reports (~150) will be standardised and integrated into the interface. Tax and Customs Board's new solutions make it possible to forward declarations from accounting software automatically. In addition, methodology using already existing private and state data will be developed, reducing the need for separate reports. The goal for 2030 is for at least 75% of reporting to be automatised.

The developed monitoring portal provides a unified platform that brings together all development documents, process overviews and datasets, which can be used to gather data and information for the strategic planning process. The portal gathers indicators into a unified data environment where they are standardised, described using metadata and accessible to civil servants and the public. The solution allows us to visualise data, create automatic reports and use Al tools to speed up processes and improve quality. The aim of the portal is to simplify work flows, collate data into one place and create a basis for the use of Al in state strategic planning.

Desired result

Initiative to reduce bureaucracy:
• A smoother and more transparent process of reducing bureaucracy, so that entrepreneurs' proposals make it into government decisions faster and with more clarity.
- A more efficient and reduced administrative burden between the public sector and enterprises, freeing up time to focus on activities that add value.
- More trust and cooperation, wherein a stronger partnership is built between entrepreneurs and the public sector based on a structured and public process.

Automatising reports in the private sector:
- Reporting burdens decrease significantly for entrepreneurs.
- The obligation to submit duplicate data is eliminated.
Millions of work hours will be saved by 2030.
- Less bureaucracy and more flexibility for entrepreneurs.
- A transparent and efficient system based on re-using data and automatic interfacing.

Automatising strategic planning:
• All data and documents related to strategic planning are in one place and can be found through one search.
• Work processes become faster and simpler, reporting is mostly automatic and relevant.
• Al tools support the creation of analyses and overviews.
• Transparency and public access to data for the public and decision-makers improves.

How will the commitment promote transparency

Proposals from entrepreneurs will be made public on dashboards that allow anyone to see what ideas have been proposed for reducing bureaucracy and what stage they are at, creating a clear and observable process. Information is presented clearly and in a way that can be understood by laymen.

Automatising reporting will make repeating data accessible through one system and reduce manual labour, ensuring a reliable overview.

Automatising strategic planning collates development plans, indicators and reports into one monitoring portal, offering clear and relevant information for both civil servants and the public.

How will the commitment promote citizen participation and co-creation

The Council of Entrepreneurs invites entrepreneurs to actively share proposals based on their experiences and discuss them with the public sector, which supports early involvement and problem-based co-creation. The Council of Entrepreneurs is not a shortcut to turning proposals into decisions and does not replace regular inclusion and cooperation in the preparation of drafts and initiatives, but offers input in addition to the current decision-making processes for determining problems.

Automatising reporting relieves the administrative burden of the private sector, allowing them to focus on more effective cooperation forms with the public sector.

The monitoring portal creates an open space allowing citizens and interest groups to access goals and indicators and make fact-based proposals.

How will the commitment promote accountability

The Government Office and the ministries will analyse proposals and observe their implementation, which makes it possible to evaluate what ideas become decisions and what their impact is - this creates a clear basis for institutional accountability.

Automatising reporting ties decisions to clear data and shows what institution is responsible for forwarding specific data.

Automatising strategic planning standardises indicators and monitoring, making the evaluation of results unambiguous and controllable.

Milestones
Milestones | Expected outputs | Expected completion date | Lead | Supporting stakeholders
Initiative to reduce bureaucracy | Analysing all Council of Entrepreneurs proposals, implementing where possible, and making information accessible to the public | 10.2026 | Government Office | Government: Ministries; CSOS: Civil society organisations with proposals; Others: Other parties with proposals
Automatising reporting in the private sector | Capacity to accept TSD and KMD declarations and TÖR entries directly from the accounting software into the machine to machine interface | 01.2027 | Government Office | Government: Tax and Customs Board, Statistics Estonia; CSOS: -; Others: -
Automatising strategic planning | Preparing strategic planning documents and reporting based on the "single submission principle" and gathering and displaying them in the monitoring portal | 12.2026 | Government Office | Government: Ministry of Finance; CSOS: -; Others: -