Foundation Tallinn 2011 budget for the years leading up to 2011 has covered things like advertising for the year-long series of events.

TALLINN — While Tallinn city hall and the national government quibble about how much should be paid, roughly half the events for the Capital of Culture 2011 could be canceled due to a lack of funding.

Foundation Tallinn 2011, set up by the municipal government and the Ministry of Culture to organize the Capital of Culture program, approved its 72 million krooni (€4.6 million) 2010 budget Wednesday evening. About 20.6 million krooni (€1.3 million) will fund 80 to 85 events, 20 million (€1.2 million) for marketing costs, and the rest for salaries.

However, the budget for the year that really counts — 2011 — is a mess. Confusion on who should fund what has forced the foundation to cut the scheduled 250 events down to about 100, and only 36 events such as the European Movie Awards, the Dark Nights Film Festival and the Youth Song Festival will be advertised abroad.

A feud has developed between the Tallinn municipality and Estonia’s national government over the funding of European Capital of Culture project, even though the original application promised both would pay equally.

The original application to the European Commission reads that the city and national government are each financing one-third of the production bodies’ expenses, with the remaining part coming from other sources. However, the city claims it has invested twice as much as the state, and accused the national government of not living up to its end of the bargain.

“We need up to 100 million krooni for 2011 but we can manage with less,” Jaanus Mutli, a Foundation Tallinn 2011 board member told Baltic Reports. “The national government’s support is not clear at the moment. It is stated that the funding should come from the country, city, and private sector. However we cannot expect the private sector to contribute so much, so the government and the city should still contribute equally.”

However, Mutli guaranteed that the funding issue would be resolved so Tallinn wouldn’t have to have its schedule cut like Vilnius when it was European Capital of Culture in 2009.

“What happened in Lithuania was disgraceful,” Mutli said. “We can do a lot better than that.”

Minister of Culture Laine Jänes told the media earlier this week that the national government, which implemented several austerity measures this year to stay on track for eurozone entry, would spell out exactly how much it will contribute to Foundation Tallinn 2011’s budget in March.

While the fight over funding continues, the foundation has decided to keep CEO Mikko Fritze’s salary at its current level. Fritze’s wage made headlines last month when it was discovered that he is paid more than Estonia’s president.