Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released monthly costs per employee in its various embassies and consulates around the world. The most expensive turned out to be Estonia's consulate-general office in San Francisco, where the average cost per employee is €8,124 a month. This is nearly 18 times higher than the lowest cost per employee in the Pskov offices of the St. Petersburg embassy, costing the treasury €453 per employee monthly.

A recent overview drawn up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has included the office costs, building and premises management costs, IT equipment and internet in the cost per employee.

According to the informaton prepared by ministry Secretary-General Jonatan Vseviov for 2022, the most expensive consulate-generals or embassies per employee are in San Francisco (€8,124 per month), Rome (€4,952), Dublin (€4,815), Tel Aviv (€3,791) and Abu Dhabi (€2,936). The top-10 also includes Canberra (€2,748), Prague (€2,594), Moscow (€2,577), Beijing (€2,392) and Tokyo (€2,373).

The costs per employee for Estonia's embassies at neighbouring countries were as follows: €1,873 in Vilnius, Lithuania, €1,138 in Stockholm, Sweden, €942 in Helsinki, Finland and €797 in Riga, Latvia.

The consulate-general per-employee cost was lowest in the Pskov (Pihkva) offices of the Consulate General of Estonia in St. Petersburg, costing the treasury €453 a month, followed by Estonia's permanent representation in NATO (€456) and in St. Petersburg itself (€568).

Representations at the European Union, Brussels (€824), Minsk (€822) and Cairo (€814) are the only other locations, where the per-employee monthly cost is less than €1,000.

The cost of each separate position is calculated for each foreign representation based on costs and the number of staff. The reference was the period of January 1 - September 30 this year and the accrued expenses for that period. Costs include office expenses, such as paper, pen, ink and toner cartridges for printers and copiers, newspaper and magazine subscriptions to offices, rental and maintenance of office equipment, repairs to office furniture, etc.

In addition, building and room maintenance costs, such as heating, electricity, water, sewerage, maintenance services and materials, rental, guarding, insurance and repair were included.

The main part of the costs per position stems from the management costs of buildings and premises.

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