The Riigikogu discussed the necessary language skills of people who stand as candidates in local elections

The purpose of the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (2 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, is to ensure that the work of municipal councils would be conducted in Estonian. According to the Bill, people who stand as candidates in local government elections should be proficient in Estonian at level C1.

Anti Poolamets, who presented the Bill, underlined that, according to law, only Estonian could be the working language of municipal councils, but unfortunately, in numerous councils, members were still not proficient in Estonian or were not using it.

When speaking of the discussion that had taken place in the committee, representative of the Constitutional Committee Katrin Kuusemäe said that the Bill did not specify why it was deemed necessary to establish precisely the language proficiency level C1 for councils. Nor did the Bill contain a procedure for certifying the language proficiency level, or provisions relating to supervision.

During the debate, Henn Põlluaas took the floor on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, and Tõnis Lukas on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group.

The lead committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. Nine members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 18 voted against. Thus, the motion was not supported, and the first reading of the Bill was concluded.

A draft Resolution was dropped from the proceedings

The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a proposal to the Government of the Republic to lower the VAT on food to 5 per cent” (10 OE), submitted by the Estonian Centre Party Group, was intended to make a proposal to the Government to lower the VAT on food to five per cent.

Andrei Korobeinik, who made a report on behalf of the submitters of the draft Resolution, said that, according to the draft Resolution, besides food products, the five per cent VAT rate would also extend to foodstuffs grown in agriculture as well as to the catering services in restaurants and hotels. “We believe that Estonian traders will also lower the prices as soon as the VAT rate drops,” he said.

When presenting the discussion that had taken place in the committee, Chairman of the Finance Committee Annely Akkermann, who made a supplementary report, said that the prevailing opinion had been that VAT should be uniform and, as a rule, the lowering of VAT did not affect the final price at all or did so only partially.

During the debate, Siim Pohlak took the floor on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group.

31 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the draft Resolution. A majority of the votes of the members of the Riigikogu, that is, at least 51 votes in favour would have been needed for the Resolution to be passed. Thus, the draft Resolution was not supported and was dropped from the legislative proceedings.

The proceedings on a Bill were adjourned

According to the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (4 SE), initiated by the Estonia Conservative People’s Party Group, only citizens of Estonia and of the European Union would have the right to vote in municipal council elections.

Henn Põlluaas, who presented the Bill, said that the granting of the right to vote on the basis of residence permit had not made the governance of local governments better, but rather on the contrary. “We have local governments where, due to a large proportion of non-nationals, the authorities in power are representing a mentality that is hostile towards our country as well as its native people, and do not respect or value the Estonian state or Estonian culture,” Põlluaas said.

Member of the Constitutional Committee Anti Allas presented the discussion that had taken place in the committee. He pointed out that aliens who had a long-term residence permit had the right to vote. A number of requirements must be met in order to obtain the permit: the person must have resided permanently in Estonia for five years before submitting an application for a residence permit, they must have a valid fixed-term residence permit, the data on their place of residence must be in the population register, they must have a stable legal income, and health insurance by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, and they must meet the integration requirement, that is, Estonian language proficiency at least at level B1.

The first reading of the Bill was adjourned due to the end of the working hours of the sitting and will continue with the debate at tomorrow’s sitting.

The first reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act and the Language Act (11 SE), initiated by Isamaa Parliamentary Group, was also deferred to the agenda for the sitting starting at 2 pm. tomorrow.

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.)

Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
Phone: +372 631 6592, +372 510 6179
E-mail: merilin.kruuse@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee

Link uudisele: The Riigikogu discussed the necessary language skills of people who stand as candidates in local elections

Source: Parliament of Estonia