NordenBladet —

At the first extraordinary session today, the Riigikogu debated the Act on Amendments to the Family Benefits Act, the Family Law Act and the Employment Contracts Act, which the President of the Republic had refused to proclaim, and decided against passing it unamended.

The Act (703 UA) would increase the allowance for the first and second child from EUR 60 and the single parent’s child allowance from EUR 19.18 to EUR 80 per month as of 1 January 2023. The allowance for families with many children would increase from EUR 300 to EUR 650 per month for three to six children, and from EUR 400 to EUR 850 per month for seven or more children. From 1 May 2024 the allowance for families with many children would be indexed with the pension index.

At the same time, the requirement that the child must be enrolled in a school would be abandoned as a condition for the payment of child allowance for children aged 16–19. This would make both the allowance for families with many children and the child allowance available to families where the child does not continue their studies for some reason, for example due to special needs. In order to promote education, the Act would retain the rule that if a 19-year-old is studying during the current academic year, the payment of the allowance would continue until they graduate or until the end of the academic year.

The Act also provides that in the case of the death of a child under three years of age, one month’s parental benefit would be paid to both the mother and the father. An amendment would also be made in the regulation for calculating maintenance provided in the Family Law Act to the effect that the allowance for families with many children would be taken into account to the extent of 50 per cent when calculating the minimum maintenance. This amendment should make the calculation of the allowance for families with many children more clear and fair.

The Act was presented by the Chairman of the Constitutional Committee Eduard Odinets and member of the Social Affairs Committee Priit Sibul.

Eduard Odinets quoted the Legal Adviser to the President who had informed the Constitutional Committee at its sitting the day before that the President had justified his refusal to proclaim the Act with the conflict between the Act and the Constitution as well as other considerations. Odinets proposed on behalf of the Constitutional Committee to not support the passing of the Act in its unamended form which had already been refused once by the President.

Priit Sibul explained that the Social Affairs Committee had also decided at its sitting the day before to not support passing the Act unamended and to correct the aspects that compromised its legally clarity. The Committee proposed allowing an hour after the end of the extraordinary session for submitting motions to amend.

During the debate, Jaanus Karilaid (Centre Party), Toomas Jürgenstein (Social Democratic Party), Martin Helme (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Jürgen Ligi (Reform Party), and Mihhail Lotman (Isamaa) spoke on behalf of their factions. Member of the Riigikogu Siim Kiisler also took the floor.

73 members of the Riigikogu voted against repassing the Act unamended. This means that the Riigikogu did not repass the Act unamended. The legislative proceedings continue with the submission of motions to amend, followed by the second and the third readings.

The sitting ended at 10.29 a.m.. The term for motions to amend is 11.30 a.m. today. The second reading of the Act takes place at the third extraordinary session of the Riigikogu today, starting two hours after the end of the second extraordinary session.

The second extraordinary session starts today at 11 a.m. Its agenda includes the second reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Health Insurance Act (725 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Faction, and in case this is concluded, also the third reading of the Bill.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

The video recording of the sitting will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.

(Please note that the recording will be uploaded with a delay.)

Source: Parliament of Estonia