Sitting Review 18 March 2024

NordenBladet —

Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet replied to the interpellation concerning the problems relating to procedural restrictions (No. 320), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Varro Vooglaid and Kalle Grünthal.

The interpellators asked two questions of the minister. First, do you admit that the problems relating to procedural restrictions are serious and need immediate attention to ensure the principle of the rule of law? And second, if the answer to the previous question is yes, does the Ministry of Justice have a plan to eliminate or mitigate the problem in question?

Laanet explained that the purpose of the Anti-corruption Act was in particular to prevent corruption and to ensure honest and impartial performance of public duties. “However, in the implementation of the Anti-corruption Act within the context of penal law, some problems arising from broad interpretation have indeed occurred that need serious attention,” Laanet admitted. He noted that the openness of the current Anti-corruption Act and the fact that its regulation was as flexible as possible had, on the one hand, helped avoid the schemes of “everything is legally correct” and, on the other hand, had placed on the bodies implementing the Act the responsibility to assess situations and an obligation to find suitable means to prevent corruption. “At the moment there are no signs that the course chosen is wrong,” the minister said.

Laanet admitted that, in the implementation of the Act, however, a lot of issues had arisen that had so far been resolved on an ongoing basis through guidelines and trainings provided by the Ministry of Justice. “I have personally met the Chancellor of Justice quite a few times during this year. We have also discussed how it would be possible to create better legal clarity precisely in connection with this violation of procedural restrictions,” Laanet said. “No specific legal provision has yet been drafted at the moment.”

According to Laanet, the Action Programme of the Government of the Republic provides that, by of the end of this year, the Anti-corruption Act should be analysed to specify the regulation relating to procedural restrictions.

“Nevertheless, procedural restrictions must continue to include cases where, in the performance of an act or making of a decision, the official is aware of an economic or other interest of that official or a person connected to him or her and which may have an impact on the act or decision,” the minister said. With the Bill, we are intending to make the regulation of procedural restriction clearer and narrower but not to normalise corruption in any area of life.

“After all, with every corruption case, it should also be very clear who profits from one or the other procedure, whether materially or morally. Of course, it is extremely complicated to assess moral profit but, after all, profiting is always an element in corruption,” Laanet said.

Laanet explained that the supervisory control that had been initiated in the previous week would have to provide an assessment of how the Prosecutor’s Office had been managed and how the development of the Prosecutor’s Office had been going.  “It should provide a picture on the basis of which we would be able to assess what the management and all the activity has been like,” Laanet said. He referred to the fact that such supervisory control had never been carried out in the Prosecutor’s Office after Estonia had regained its independence.

Laanet also replied to the interpellation concerning the justification of the activities of the Prosecutor’s Office  and the Estonian Internal Security Service (No. 528).

Minister of Regional Affairs Madis Kallas replied to the interpellation concerning the establishment of a pet register  (No. 594), submitted by members of the Riigikogu.

The interpellators withdrew from the proceedings the interpellations concerning the restrictions on the right of appeal to the Supreme Court (defence counsel requirements) (No. 336) and the Bill on the criminalisation of incitement of hatred (No. 503), submitted to Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet.

During the open microphone, Rain Epler and Helmen Kütt took the floor.

The sitting ended at 6.21 p.m.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.

Riigikogu Press Service
Gunnar Paal
+372 631 6351, +372 5190 2837
gunnar.paal@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee

Link uudisele: Sitting Review 18 March 2024

Source: Parliament of Estonia