TALLINN — 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.

Even though the amount is clearly stated in the original application, on Oct. 16 the Ministry of Culture sent a letter to the city asking for proof on that the state would cover one-third, requesting to see signed documents proving this.

“The ministry sent a letter to Tallinn municipal government with a question on what promises we have made and which ones we have not followed,” Ave Toots-Erelt, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Culture told Baltic Reports. “We did not give any uncovered promises.”

But when asked by Baltic Reports the national government was not able to show the exact payment figures for past years, unlike the municipality.

According to Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kaia Jäppinen in 2007 the city paid 6.5 million krooni (€415,000) to cover the project’s expenses, the state however did not pay at all. In 2008, 14 million krooni (€895,000) was invested by the city but only 4.5 million (€287,000) by the state.

Likewise in 2009 the national government gave only 10 million krooni (€639,000) but the city 18.7 (€1.2 million) and in 2010 the state will give 10 million krooni but Tallinn 20 million krooni (€1.27 million). So from 2007 until 2010 the capital has funded the project with 59.2 million krooni (€3.7 million) but country only with 24.5 million krooni (€1.5 million), hardly an even one-third each.

“Of course we cannot expect to finance the project the way it was planned in the beginning as the economical situation has changed so much since 2006,” Jäppinen told Baltic Reports. “The city’s share is also more modest than was planned, but proportionally the city has funded the culture capital project twice as much as the state has.”

The cultural ministry disputes these figures, pointing out that while only 10 million krooni was given to the foundation for 2010, 5 million krooni is designated for culture capital projects and 7 million krooni (€447,000) for a European film festival, therefore the actual investment is 22 million krooni (€1.4 million).

These numbers don’t add up to the amount the government said it will pay on a Dec. 16 press release, though, which states that a total of 300 million krooni (€19 million) will be designated for the Capital of Culture project, 150 million krooni (€9.5 million) of which will be for 2010.