NordenBladet — At its extraordinary session, the Riigikogu discussed the Bill on Amendments to the Aliens Act (mitigation of the labour crisis) (192 SE), initiated by the Estonian Reform Party Faction. The Bill provided that the work permits of the foreign employees who were employed in Estonia as at 17 March were to be extended until 31 December 2020. The Riigikogu rejected the Bill at the first reading.

The aim of the Bill was to keep the foreign labour already employed in Estonia so that it would help fill the gaps in demand that could not be filled with Estonian residents upon suspension of the free movement of labour. The situation is the worst with seasonal jobs in agriculture, but the loss of foreign labour is also irreparable in the construction sector, industry, social welfare and elsewhere.

During the debate, the representatives of factions Ivari Padar (Social Democratic Party), Kersti Sarapuu (Centre Party), Helir-Valdor Seeder (Isamaa), Jaak Valge (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) and Kaja Kallas (Reform Party) took the floor.

Padar said that the expulsion of foreign labour on 31 July would obviously be an ill-considered political caprice. Therefore the Social Democratic Party Faction would support the proceedings on the Bill. Sarapuu commended the Government’s decision that morning on the resolution of the foreign labour problems. In her opinion, the Bill was not sustainable in terms of the resolution of the situation. Seeder explained the decision made at today’s Government sitting, according to which the pre-coronavirus situation in the use of foreign labour would be restored if the use of foreign labour complied with the medical examination requirements. Valge said that the Estonian Conservative People’s Party could not vote for the Bill because the import of cheap labour enhanced the facilitation of the settlement of people of Slavic background in Estonia. In his opinion, the use of cheap labour keeps our overall remuneration low, while at the same time Estonia is haunted by unemployment that should be resolved at the expense of internal reserves. Kallas expressed her delight that the opposition’s pressure had borne fruit and the Government had been forced to propose their solution that day. The decision proposed by the Government today is a solution to a problem they themselves have created. The greatest concern is that, with its activities, the Government will turn the country into an enclosed province. If the Bill were to be rejected from the legislative proceedings, a situation might arise where a large number of cows would remain unmilked.

The Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. The result of voting: 52 votes in favour and 42 against. The Bill was dropped from the proceedings.

NordenBladet — In their Joint Statement, the Chairmen of the Foreign Affairs Committees of the Parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call on the State Duma and the authorities of the Russian Federation to withdraw from proceeding the proposal to revoke and invalidate the resolution condemning the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocol.

In 1989, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR adopted the resolution that condemned the 1939 Soviet-German Non-Aggression Treaty. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Enn Eesmaa said that the bill on revoking and invalidating that resolution, which was currently being proceeded in the State Duma, was a regrettable attempt to rewrite history. “World War II that caused the death of tens of millions of people, occupation of the Baltic States, and the partition of Poland between two totalitarian powers were the direct results of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocol. The proposed law is an attempt to distort those events and to justify the use of military force against smaller neighbours, and this is done at the expense of the memory of the victims of the World War,” he emphasised.

The Joint Statement of the Chairmen of the Foreign Affairs Committees underlines that the proposal on revoking the 1989 resolution will not have any impact on the unequivocal condemnation of the Pact and its secret protocol as an illegal act under the international law. Likewise, it will not affect its assessment by historians.

The Joint Statement points out that the rehabilitation of the totalitarian imperialism in the proceeded bill is an attempt to justify the rejection of the equal protection of sovereign states under international law. “It is particularly dangerous since it justifies, in fact affirms the current policy of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, and opens the path for further potential violations of the international law at the expense of independence and sovereignty of the neighbouring countries,” the Chairmen of the Foreign Affairs Committees write.

“We call on the State Duma and the authorities of the Russian Federation to make all possible efforts to base the relations with their neighbours on the international law, the respect of their sovereignty and territorial integrity, the restoration of trust in international relations and reestablishment of good neighbourly relations in our part of Europe. In such efforts the first necessary step will be the withdrawal from proceeding the proposal,” the Joint Statement says.

Full text of the Statement of the Chairmen of the Foreign Affairs Committees

The Riigikogu supported the preservation of authentic historical memory also in its Statement “On Historical Memory and Falsification of History”, which was adopted on 19 February this year.