The Riigikogu approved an amendment of the Foreign Service Act

The Act on Amendments to the Foreign Service Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (353 SE), initiated by the Government, reduces the burden upon the assignment of specialised diplomats and non-staff administrative officials to foreign missions as the decision-making competence relating to their assignment is left to the sending ministry. In the recruitment to foreign service, a derogation is made that enables former diplomats to be recruited for a specified period without a public competition.

The payment of the allowance for spouse and registered partner is also continued to the extent of 50 percent in the case when the accompanying spouse works. An official who goes on a long-term assignment abroad alone with a child of under 13 years of age, a disabled child, or an adult child with no capacity for work will also have the possibility to take a support person with them to the long-term assignment abroad.

Under the Act, the employer does not have to pay the social tax paid for the spouse or registered partner accompanying an official on a long-term assignment. The aim of the amendment is to encourage employers to allow their employees to take unpaid leave and to allow employees to return to their current job.

The provision delegating authority regulating the issues relating to the residence of the head of foreign mission is transferred from the Foreign Relations Act to the Foreign Service Act.

67 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act and two voted against.

A Bill passed the second reading

The Bill on Amendments to the Accounting Act (428 SE), initiated by the Government, will standardise and simplify the requirements for the circulation and preparation of machine-processable source documents, in particular e-invoices.

According to the explanatory memorandum, e-invoicing for the public sector has been mandatory in Estonia since 2019, but the wider uptake of e-invoicing in the private sector has stalled. The Bill is intended to remove the obstacles that have emerged with the widespread use of electronic invoices and to facilitate the implementation of a single European standard for e-invoices.

Under the Bill, electronic invoices will have to comply with the European standard and the Estonian standard will be abolished. The Bill will also abolish the obligation to issue only e-invoices to public sector entities in all cases and will provide for the right of accounting entities that have registered as e-invoice recipients in the commercial register to require sellers to issue electronic invoices.

Two Bills were dropped from legislative proceedings

The Bill on Amendments to § 2 of the Public Holidays and Days of National Importance Act (402 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Group, was dropped from the proceedings of the Riigikogu. It was intended to make Easter Monday a public holiday. According to initiators, it is a public holiday and a day of rest in the majority of European Union countries and in many other countries. With the amendment, the number of public holidays in Estonia would increase to twelve.

The lead committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 48 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 12 voted against. There were two abstentions.

The Bill on Amendments to the Riigikogu Election Act (obtaining a compensation mandate according to the number of votes cast for a candidate) (412 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Group, was also dropped from the proceedings of the Riigikogu. It provides for a change to the system of compensation mandates in Riigikogu elections.

The Bill was intended to amend the Act so that the candidate who receives more votes would obtain a compensation mandate. For this, the Bill provided that, in the national list of a political party, candidates would be ranked on the basis of the number of votes received and the compensation mandates of the political party would go to candidates who were higher on the re-ranked national list of the party.

The lead committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 50 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and ten voted against.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

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

Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
+372 631 6592; +372 510 6179
merilin.kruuse@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee

Link uudisele: The Riigikogu approved an amendment of the Foreign Service Act

Source: Parliament of Estonia