Estonia: The Riigikogu appointed a new member to the Estonian Public Broadcasting Council

NordenBladet  – At today’s sitting, the Riigikogu adopted a resolution on the appointment of a member of the Public Broadcasting Council from among the members of the Riigikogu.

Under the Resolution of the Riigikogu “Appointment of a Member of the Estonian Public Broadcasting Council from among the Members of the Riigikogu” (280 OE), submitted by the Cultural Affairs Committee, Anti Poolamets, member of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction, is appointed as a member of the Estonian Public Broadcasting Council in connection with the premature termination of the mandate of member of the Council Urmas Reitelmann.

The Public Broadcasting Council includes a representative from each faction of the Riigikogu until the end of the mandate of the Riigikogu, and four experts from among the acknowledged experts in the field of activity of the Public Broadcasting with a five-year mandate.

48 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution, 29 voted against, and there were four abstentions.

The Riigikogu did not pass a Resolution

The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a Proposal to the Government of the Republic to Organise the Work of the Estonian Pre-school and General Education Institutions on Uniform Bases in the COVID-19 Virus Situation” (242 OE), submitted by the Estonian Reform Party Faction, was intended to make a proposal to the Government of the Republic to prepare a plan for organising all the work of Estonian pre-school and general education institutions in the area of government of the Ministry of Education and Research on uniform bases in the COVID-19 virus situation, together with a plan for implementing the necessary changes.

The initiators found that the plan should be drafted keeping in mind the restrictions in place to prevent the spread of the virus and the restrictions must not infringe disproportionately or unnecessarily the right of nursery school and school children to high-quality education, learning social skills and hot school meals. It was also found that the changing of the organisation of studies due to the spread of the virus and the risk of infection, including the implementation of distance learning, should be on uniform bases in the whole country and unambiguously understandable to teachers, students, parents and heads of school and should be based only on objective indicators and action plans agreed on previously. Finally, it was pointed out that extensive use of distance learning should be permissible only on the basis of a recommendation of the COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Board advising the Government or another scientific grounding, and with the approval of the Health Board.

During the debate, Marko Šorin (Centre Party), Jevgeni Ossinovski (Social Democratic Party) and Heidy Purga (Reform Party) took the floor on behalf of their factions.

The proposal of the Cultural Affairs Committee as the lead committee was to hold a final vote on the draft Resolution. A majority vote of the members of the Riigikogu was needed for the draft Resolution to be passed. 38 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution and 42 voted against; thus, the draft Resolution was not supported.

Source: Parliament of Estonia