NordenBladet —On Saturday, December 7, members of the Regional Command North-East of the Estonian Defence League held simulated defensive battles as part of multinational military exercise Pikne. Units from Estonia, France, the United Kingdom and Latvia were involved in the training. “We reached combat readiness during this night, the troops familiarised themselves with the positions, conducted reconnaissance, and …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces
NordenBladet —On Saturday, December 7, exercise Pikne concluded for Estonian and Allied naval vessels. During the last days of the exercise, the naval units practiced cooperation on patrolling the maritime areas and protecting the ships against threats from other vessels and drones. “It was the first time for us to practice …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces
NordenBladet —The Military Intelligence Center of Estonian Defence Forces has set up a hotline on its website to expand the possibilities of collecting information for the purpose of ensuring national security. As per the assessment of the Military Intelligence Center (MIC), due to the aggressive and expansionist actions of the Eastern …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces
NordenBladet —
The Chairman of the Committee Peeter Tali emphasised that the European Union Affairs Committee fully supported a closer cooperation between the higher education institutions of Member States as well as the European Degree Label, but did not agree with the speed with which the degree was being introduced.
“A European degree would mean a new and parallel qualification and force us to make changes in the national legislation. Too much has remained unknown, too many questions unanswered, too many loose ends untied; this is why we find it impossible to support the creation of a European degree and its introduction along with the European Degree Label at this moment,” Tali said. He also stressed the importance of ensuring that there was a balance between the Estonian-medium and international curricula and that the higher education was provided in Estonian as widely as possible.
The initiative also involves creating a new quality ensuring system. Estonia’s positions say that we support improving the quality ensuring systems but see no reason to develop a new cross-institutional system. Estonia sees this as repetitive and inadequate to fulfilling the goal of reducing administrative burden.
Estonia finds that overall the package must respect the subsidiarity of the Member States in education, and may not interfere with the autonomy or academic freedom of universities. A better model and solution would be an agreement on the automatic recognition of qualifications, such as is already in place between the Baltic and Benelux countries. All EU Member States are welcome to join it, and Poland and Ireland have already expressed their interest.
The Government’s positions on the European higher education package initiatives presented by the European Commission were explained by the Lead Expert from the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Research Janne Pukk. The European Union Affairs Committee decided by consensus to support the positions, taking into account the opinion of the Cultural Affairs Committee.
Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
+372 631 6592; +372 510 6179
merilin.kruuse@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee
Link uudisele: The Riigikogu does not support the speedy introduction of a European degree
Source: Parliament of Estonia
NordenBladet —On Thursday, December 5, reserve troops of the Short-Range Air Defense Battery, Estonian Division, practiced countering air threats using man-portable air defence systems Piorun as part of exercise Pikne. The reservists were ordered to report to duty by the Estonian Government on December 3 with the announcement of initiating a snap exercise (SNAPEX) Okas 24-2 („Quill 24-2“). “Today is already the third day of the …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces
NordenBladet —Throughout this week, the minehunter FS Croix du Sud of the French Navy is involved in hunting historical ordnances in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland as part of the exercise Pikne („Lightning“). The first ordnance was countermined on the 4th of December. “Our main task is to conduct historical ordnance disposal operations, but through this, we are able to …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces
NordenBladet —
According to Mihkelson, it is also essential to stop the onslaught of Russian imperialism in Georgia by imposing personal sanctions on the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and his henchmen, and in order to emerge from the constitutional crisis, it is necessary to hold new and free elections in the country.
Yesterday and the day before, Mihkelson and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu Eerik-Niiles Kross had meetings in Washington, D.C. with Jim Risch, who will become Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Jeanne Shaheen, who will be Deputy Chair of this Committee, as well as with members of the House of Representatives Joe Wilson, Bill Huizenga, Joe Courtney and Brad Schneider.
Mihkelson said that the meetings were an opportunity to reaffirm that Estonia was committed to maintaining and developing good relations with the USA, and continued to honour its alliance commitments, to strengthen its security and to firmly support Ukraine. “Ukraine needs support as long as it has won the war, and the continued contribution of the US is crucial here,” he said. In addition to supporting Ukraine, the continuing of transatlantic cooperation, increasing of European defence contribution, strengthening of deterrence and defence on NATO’s eastern flank and the critical situation in Georgia were also discussed at the meetings.
Together with Member of the European Parliament, former Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament pf Latvia Rihards Kols, Mihkelson and Kross met with the representatives of the US network Business Executives for National Security. The members of the Parliament of Estonia also had a meeting at the think tank Hudson Institute.
Mihkelson and Kross are in the USA to participate in the annual Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum in Washington, which will also be attended by Member of the Riigikogu Mati Raidma. At the beginning of next week, Mihkelson will be in Washington with Head of the Estonian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Raimond Kaljulaid to attend the Assembly’s Transatlantic Forum, which will include a visit to the NATO headquarters in Norfolk and a visit to a US naval base.
Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
karin.kangro@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee
Link uudisele: Mihkelson urged the USA to support Ukraine’s victory plan
Source: Parliament of Estonia
NordenBladet —Today, the units from the Regional Command North-East (RC N-E), Estonian Defence League (EDL), conducted a rehearsal of concept drill for upcoming simulated battles, that will be carried out in the upcoming days together with NATO Multinational Battlegroup stationed in Estonia. “Today, we played though the upcoming operation so that …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces
NordenBladet —
Under the Bill on the Accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (534 SE), initiated by the Government of the Republic, Estonian children would acquire the right to submit complaints to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child when their rights have been breached, and the Committee would receive the right to proceed such complaints once Estonia accedes to the Protocol. The Committee will also be able to launch investigations into serious and systematic violations of children’s rights.
The Protocol sets out the competences of the Committee in case of communications procedures, as well as temporary protection measures. Complaints can be submitted by individuals or groups when the rights of a child as provided in the Convention on the Rights of the Child or its optional protocols have been violated, including the provisions on sale of children, child prostitution, or involving children in armed conflicts.
The implementation of the Protocol will take place within the confines of the resources available to ministries and through the drafting of the necessary materials, the costs of which will be covered from the European Social Fund. 52 countries have already ratified the Optional Protocol.
During the debate, Züleyxa Izmailova spoke on behalf of the Social Democratic Party Group and Urmas Reinsalu spoke on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group.
One Bill was dropped from the proceedings
The Riigikogu rejected at the first reading the Bill on Amendments to the Citizenship Act (522 SE), initiated by Isamaa Parliamentary Group, which intended to prevent the granting and restoration of Estonian citizenship to people who have been repeatedly convicted of intentionally committed criminal offences, even if their convictions have been spent. The initiators pointed out that the same prohibition had initially been in the Citizenship Act of 1995 as well.
Under the current Act, in exceptional cases, Estonian citizenship may be granted or restored to a person who has been repeatedly convicted of intentionally committed criminal offences and whose convictions have been spent, with consideration as to the circumstances related to the commission of the criminal offences and the identity of the offender.
The Constitutional Committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 45 members of the Riigikogu supported the rejection and nine were against it.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
karin.kangro@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee
Link uudisele: Bill protecting children rights passed the first reading
Source: Parliament of Estonia
NordenBladet —Throughout this week, Estonian and Allied forces are practicing various air operations as part of the Pikne exercise, including close air support procedures. During the training allied aircraft also conduct low-altitude flights. “The main focus of the air operations during exercise Pikne is to practice the procedures of the Air …
Source: Estonian Defence Forces