NordenBladet —
The Bill on Amendments to the Farm Animals Breeding Act (551 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the second reading. It will re-transpose the relevant European Union directive and establish a regulation for horse competitions which was mistakenly omitted when the new version of the Act was adopted.
According to the Bill, the conditions for competitions for equidae and the requirements for prior notification of the organisation thereof will be established. The conditions for competitions may not discriminate between equidae which are registered in Estonia and originate in Estonia and equidae of another Member State. The requirement will not apply at competitions for the improvement of the breed and at traditional events. According to the bill, by December 15 at the latest, the organizer of a competition will have to inform the Agriculture and Food Board of a competition planned for the following year.
A Bill passed the first reading
The Organisation of Research and Development and Innovation Bill (554 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will provide for the first time the general principles and obligations of research ethics at the level of law, as well as the tasks of the Estonian Research Council in the organization thereof. A research ethics committee will be set up at the Research Council to coordinate, for example, the conduct of human research.
The bill will streamline public funding for research. The current baseline funding will be transformed into activity support which will be divided into baseline funding and performance funding. When granting baseline funding, the last three years’ funding of the institution will be taken into account, while for performance funding, the results of the institution will be taken into account. As an important amendment, the payment of activity support will be divided between two ministries in the future. The Ministry of Education and Research will continue to pay the activity support for state and public research and development institutions, while the payment of the activity support for private sector research and development institutions will be transferred to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
All research and development institutions must be positively evaluated in order to receive activity support and national research grants. In the future, the evaluation of the quality of the research work of evaluated universities and institutions of professional higher education will be carried out within the framework of institutional accreditation in order to reduce the burden and bureaucracy related to the evaluations of educational institutions.
The strategic management of research and development and innovation will be updated. Innovation policy will be brought more clearly to the desk of the Research and Development Council which advises the government. A supra-ministerial steering committee on research, development and innovation will be set up to replace the Research Policy Committee and the Innovation Policy Committee advising the ministers responsible for research and development and innovation. The Government Office will be given the task of coordinating public sector innovation activities. The tasks of ministries in planning, organizing, and financing research and development activities and innovation activities in their areas of government and in transmitting the relevant information to the Ministry of Education and Research will also be specified.
The Act provides for the Centre for Applied Research as a new actor in the national organisation of research and development.
The Act is planned to enter into force on 1 September 2025.
Heljo Pikhof (Social Democratic Party) took the floor during the debate.
A Bill was dropped from the proceedings
The Bill on Amendments to the Hunting Act (567 SE), initiated by Members of the Riigikogu Rain Epler, Arvo Aller, Mart Helme, Varro Vooglaid and Rene Kokk, was intended to introduce an amendment to the Hunting Act, according to which a person holding a hunting certificate can kill a problem individual and game that damages the property owned by the person or directly endangers the life and health of the person and his or her close ones. According to the bill, a person will not need a hunting permit in such a situation.
Mart Helme (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) took the floor during the debate.
The Environment Committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading; 34 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 15 were against. Thus, the Bill was dropped from the legislative proceedings.
The deliberation of a Bill was cancelled
Due to the absence of the presenter, it was impossible to deliberate the Bill on Amendments to the Riigikogu Rules of Procedure and Internal Rules Act (552 SE), initiated by Members of the Riigikogu Rain Epler, Kert Kingo and Arvo Aller. The purpose of the Bill is to lay down more clearly in the Riigikogu Rules of Procedure and Internal Rules Act the rules for meeting the obligations of members of the Government and other persons to appear before a committee of the Riigikogu and to present documents, as well as sanctions in the event of failure to meet such obligations.
Under the current Act, committees of the Riigikogu have the right to summon members of the Government and other persons to appear before the committee and to require the presentation of documents. However, at the same time, the current Act does not clearly provide for the obligation of persons to comply with the requirements of the committees of the Riigikogu.
The Bill provides that failure to appear before a committee of the Riigikogu without a valid reason following a summons from the committee, failure to present data or documents, or refusal to provide explanations or to reply to questions is punishable by a fine of up to 300 fine units. If a minister does not comply with a request of a committee of the Riigikogu within two working weeks of the Riigikogu from the submission of the request, the procedure of expressing no confidence in the minister will automatically begin.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Maris Meiessaar
+372 631 6353, +372 5558 3993
maris.meiessaar@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee
Link uudisele: The Riigikogu discussed three Bills
Source: Parliament of Estonia