NordenBladet — The National Defence Committee held an extraordinary sitting today to discuss keeping the defence spending on the current level and using loan money. The Committee adopted a relevant statement.
“The National Defence Committee firmly supports keeping the defence spending at least on the current planned nominal level. In view of the tense international security environment and the growing instability caused by the pandemic, we have the duty to ensure the sustainable development of Estonia’s defence capability.
Cutting defence spending would lead to problems today and in the future, and would undermine national defence. In case of need, we must carry out structural changes to continue developing our defence capability or close the existing capability gaps with the help of a loan.
Defence spending plans must centre on the need to stimulate Estonia’s economy.”
Minister of Finance Martin Helme, Minister of Defence Jüri Luik, and Commander of the Defence Forces Major General Martin Herem took part in the sitting.
NordenBladet — Two drafts passed the first reading
The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Use of the Defence Forces in the Fulfilment of the International Commitments of the Estonian State in Operation ‘Sentinel’ of the International Maritime Security Construct” (211 OE), initiated by the Government, will allow to contribute with up to five servicemen to operation “Sentinel”.
In summer 2019, the United States of America launched an initiative to establish the International Maritime Security Construct IMSC, which aims to ensure the freedom of navigation and security of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and to promote a rule-based international order. In order to achieve this, IMSC has launched the operation Sentinel in the Strait of Hormuz region.
Estonia’s priority is international relations based on international law and rules, including the ensuring of freedom of navigation. By participating in the operation, Estonia will make its contribution to increasing stability and security in the Middle East region. In autumn 2020, Estonia will contribute with a staff officer at the operation headquarters in Bahrain. By participating in operation Sentinel, Estonia will continue excellent bilateral cooperation in international missions with its strategic partners, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
The expenses of the participation in the operation will be covered from the budget of the area of government of the Ministry of Defence.
The amendment proposed by the Bill on Amendments to the Local Government Organisation Act (212 SE), initiated by the Constitutional Committee, concerns people who are members of a municipal council and are employed on the basis of an employment contract in an administrative agency of the same rural municipality or city. In the future, suspension of the authority of member of the council will be applied to such people, instead of termination of authority. The proposed amendment does not concern officials.
The initiation of the Bill was motivated by a relevant application of the Chancellor of Justice for the Supreme Court to adopt a position. The Supreme Court had found that the restrictions in place for employees employed under an employment contract at municipal administrative agencies were not necessary and excessively restricted their right to stand as candidates. Consequently, the committee also deems it necessary to ease the restriction and supports suspension of the authority instead of termination of the authority.
The Act is planned to enter into force on 17 October when the decision of the Supreme Court will also enter into force. As of this date, it will no longer be possible to prematurely terminate the authority of the council members who are employees of municipal administrative agencies.
NordenBladet —Today, a seminar on Asia was held in the Conference Hall of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) on the initiative of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu. The main topic of the seminar was the importance of Asia for Estonia, considering the increasing impact of the Asian region in the economic, trade as well as geopolitical perspective.
In his opening address, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu Enn Eesmaa highlighted the idea of the Asian Centre at the University of Tartu and the proposal of the Foreign Affairs Committee to create an Asian strategy until 2035 for Estonia.
“Estonia needs a strategy that would take into account the interests of as many social groups as possible,” he said. “We need to have clearer principles for long-term communication with the Asian countries in education, research, economy, culture and in many other fields. The Foreign Affairs Committee will continue its work through parliamentary hearings, seeking new opportunities and searching for fresh solutions,” Eesmaa said.
Deputy Chairman of the Committee Marko Mihkelson pointed out that the Foreign Affairs Committee had been dealing with Asia as an important region in several compositions of the Riigikogu. He recalled the report “The Opportunities and Interests of Estonia in Asia until 2025”, which had been prepared in 2012 on the basis of the hearings in the Committee. “Eight years ago we were not able to foresee how fast the impact of Asia in the context of global economy, politics and security would enter our daily life. The influence of China and other Asian countries in the coming years and decades may be much more defining that we can estimate today,” he said.
Rector of the Estonian Business School (EBS) and former Head of Research of the Foresight Centre Meelis Kitsing spoke about the meaning of the scenarios on global lines of power to the relations between the European Union and Asia. Using the global lines of power scenarios prepared by the Foresight Centre, Kitsing described four alternatives for Europe until 2035. In his opinion, the key factors of the scenarios are the cooperation of the EU member states and their ability to develop an infrastructure that would have an increasing role of a geopolitical instrument.
Member of Asia Update Organising Team Liisi Karindi presented a summary of Estonia’s risks and opportunities within the context of emerging Asia. Karindi drew attention to the fact that we could not ignore the growing importance of Asia in global economy and in politics, education, security and other spheres. She emphasised that, for its sustainable and successful development in the context of the growing importance of Asia, Estonia needed to expand its knowledge and formulate its ambitions.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rainer Saks discussed the approach of gathering the topics that are important for society into a uniform Asian strategy. According to him, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of how to define the region we term as Asia in the strategy. Saks also said that several different social groups, including the economic and academic community, must definitely be involved in the public debate on the Asian strategy.
Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu and representatives of the University of Tartu, the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, the Government Office, Tallinn University, Enterprise Estonia, Tallinn University of Technology and ministries participated in the seminar.
NordenBladet — Põlluaas spoke about the adoption of the first Constitution of the Republic of Estonia one hundred years ago, and the challenges faced by democratic countries, the foreign and security policy and the activities of the Riigikogu in connection with the corona crisis.
Põlluaas pointed out that the COVID-19 situation was not likely to end in the nearest future, and its course was unpredictable. “Therefore we need to do everything to minimise risks to human life and health, and to ensure the functioning and recovery of society and economy. For that, we have adopted a number of important measures that have justified themselves, but we cannot sit back,” Põlluaas said. “As we have seen in the case of COVID-19, it is often vitally important to include urgent issues in the agenda at once and to solve them. However, things must not be over-dramatised. A balanced approach is needed,” the President of the Riigikogu emphasised.
Põlluaas underlined that we were global pioneers in providing digital services, but we needed a fundamental and comprehensive discussion on the relations between technology and politics, as well as technology and the parliament.
“This spring, we amended the Riigikogu Rules of Procedure and Internal Rules Act so that in a crisis situation, where the parliament cannot convene physically, it would be possible to hold plenary sittings electronically. We have been developing a relevant platform for the whole summer and it is already in the testing stage. Only a few parliaments in the world have such a possibility of electronic sittings, and I dare affirm that ours is a cut above all of them. In the near future we will all have a chance to test it,” Põlluaas said.
Speaking of the tasks faced by the Members of the Riigikogu, Põlluaas noted: “Although we may have different approaches to problems, we definitely share the common opinion that the state must always try to improve the life of the people of Estonia. If we have good will and sufficient readiness to cooperate, we can do it.”
Kaljulaid spoke about Estonia’s long-term development issues, development of economy, personal freedoms and universal rights, problems relating to the administrative reform, strengthening the role of local governments and resolving the challenges faced by the Riigikogu.
Kaljulaid said, “These long-term developmental risks must be mitigated with smart leadership. That work can be done in this very hall.”
“And then, we have the pandemic. Fighting the virus means that our ordinary rights may be restricted in the name of a certain greater societal benefit – preventing fatalities. But these restrictions must be proportional and applied uniformly,” the President of the Republic said.
“I would be proud of the Riigikogu if this year’s debates were to show our people that you truly care about their rights, freedoms, future, and also their wish to make local communities the kind of Estonia that the people who live there themselves desire,” Kaljulaid emphasised.
“I would be proud of the Riigikogu if, in this season, parallel to the heated debate over freedoms and interpretation of the Constitution, you were to finally begin drafting laws that will give us a green Estonia, a monolingual school system, and legislation that is as permissive as possible in regard to new technologies founded on data use,” the President added.
“Let’s make it so that the rest of the world isn’t a step ahead of us, but vice-versa,” Kaljulaid said. The President of the Republic wished the Riigikogu all the strength.
The songs performed by the chamber choir Collegium Musicale, conducted by Endrik Üksvärav, created a festive atmosphere at the opening sitting.
NordenBladet —From today, the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) is using a new system for preparing of verbatim reports of the sittings. The system is called Hans and it was developed by the Estonian IT company Finestmedia. The system is using the speech recognition technology created in Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech).
Administrative Director of the Chancellery of the Riigikogu Ahto Saks said that the new system performed the time-consuming work of stenographers. “The system records the debates taking place in the Riigikogu Session Hall as sound files, and the speech recognition writes it down. After that, editors come to help Hans and revise the text, and then it is published on the Riigikogu website,” Saks described the workflow.
Saks explained that it had taken two years from the idea to the introduction of the system, but it was not completely ready yet, and the development and improvements continued. “First, Hans will make the verbatim records of the Riigikogu sittings and Question Times. It is planned to use the system also in the work of the committees in the future,” Saks added.
Finestmedia’s Head of Division Lauri Esko said that creation of the verbatim reports system had been an exciting challenge for their company. The technological solutions provided by different parties could be inventively integrated to see how the synergy emerging from it brought about a major development.
“We created a solution that has a much wider potential than its today’s use,” Esko pointed out. “The systems containing speech recognition can be an efficient tool in the work of courts, prisons and the police, but also in health care, research and journalism, where writing down or making a detailed report of a conversation is necessary.” Esko added that the solution also had a great export potential. “We have already introduced Hans to delegations from several countries who wish to start writing the success story of their e-governance with its help,” he said.
Head of the Laboratory of Language Technology of Tallinn University of Technology Tanel Alumäe believes the new system shows how modern technology helps make routine work more effective.
“We have been actively working on speech recognition for 15 years, and today Estonian speech recognition is used by radiologists, researchers and journalists. Web-based speech recognition is freely available to everyone through ‘tekstiks.ee’ environment,” the researcher said. “In spite of the smallness of the Estonian language, the Estonian language technology is on a relatively high level.” Globally, speech recognition is widely used with larger languages.
NordenBladet —On Saturday, October 17th, Pan-Finno-Ugric Day, which is one of the most important yearly cultural events of the Finno-Ugric peoples, will be celebrated. In a message sent to the Ministers of Culture of the kindred nations, Minister of Culture Tõnis Lukas emphasised the importance of the Finno-Ugric languages and cultures in the European cultural space.
‘The Pan-Finno-Ugric Day is the most prominent symbols of cultural cooperation between the three Finno-Ugric countries of Estonia, Finland and Hungary. It highlights the unique nature of the Finno-Ugric languages and the importance of Finno-Ugric culture in Europe’s rich cultural space. And it also points out the importance and value of the cultures of small nations in the wide world,’ the Estonian Minister of Culture said in his message to Annika Saarikko, the Finnish Minister of Science and Culture and Prof. Dr. Miklós Kásler, the Minister of Human Resources.
Lukas also invited his Finnish and Hungarian colleagues to the 8th World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples that will take place in Estonia next year. The event will take place at the Estonian National Museum in Tartu from the 16th to the 18th of June 2021. The theme of the congress will be Cultural Landscapes – Language and Mind.
This year, the events that are centred around Saturday’s Finno-Ugric Day are dedicated to the Year of Digital Culture, and therefore, many events will be available via webcasts. The main events of the Finno-Ugric Day will be conferences at the Estonian National Library and Narva College starting on Friday, October 16th, where, among other things, issues related to the teaching the languages of kindred peoples will be discussed along with the possibilities of utilising modern technology to achieve this. The main concerts of the Finno-Ugric Days will take place at the Estonian National Museum on Saturday, 17 October and at the Theatre Centre Vaba Lava on Sunday, 18 October. There will also be an additional programme of concerts, exhibitions, poetry evenings, radio and TV shows, and films. A number of thematic films and programs will also be broadcast on Estonian National Broadcasting’s Jupiter portal, and webcasts and other events will be available on the Fenno-Ugria NGO website.
Based on a decision of the 4th Finno-Ugric Cultural Congress in 1931, Finno-Ugric Days are held annually throughout the Finno-Ugric world on the third weekend of October. Since 2011, Finno-Ugric Day has been a day of national importance in Estonia. The Fenno-Ugria NGO is the main organiser of the Finno-Ugric Days in Estonia.
NordenBladet – Exposition idea contest “Your exposition” audience vote collected most support for the idea “Our domestic witch kitchen”, that brings to the viewer a fragment of the Estonian farm kitchen and the fascinating activities that can be done in a cozy kitchen at the long table all together. The winning exposition will be launched in the summer of 2021 in the partnership hall of the Estonian National Museum ERM.
Authors of the idea of this exposition are a mother with two daughters: Helena-Reet Ennet, Estella Elisheva and Ivanka Shoshana. “I am very grateful to everyone who believed in our idea. My youngest daughter is a child with special needs. I wished for us to have together this “very own project”. So now in our family there is this tradition to go in for these manual activities – clay fashioning, and burning in the oven, painting with acrylic paint, tying herbs to bundle and hanging them to the stove for drying, and making nature-based cosmetics. It pleases to do this together and it soothes the spirit! Now we have reason and enthusiasm to continue with the witch kitchen undertakings,” explains author of the idea Helena-Reet Ennet.
The contest “Your exposition” lodged 13 exposition concepts. All competing ideas won their keen followers, but the lead of this one idea among them was glaring. “In the contemporary hurry it leaves a pleasant impression when a concept of a museum exhibition embraces common proceedings of a family. Indeed the purpose of the partnership hall is to reflect daily life and reveal passionate and pretenseless creative expression,” indicates manager of expositions at ERM, Kristjan Raba, and goes on to elaborate that people more and more visit their expositions as a family event.
ERM partnership hall is designed to accommodate exposition ideas with lay origin, expositions compiled by citizens routinely not involved in museum work and display curacy, however, they have an interest, an important idea or subject matter that they wish to share and bring to the public. Contest for exposition ideas is held by Estonian National Museum ERM for the 6th year.
NordenBladet —The President of the Riigikogu Henn Põlluaas made a statement on the 26th anniversary of the withdrawal of the Russian troops, saying that for Estonia this also meant the termination of World War II and the end of the more than 50-year presence of occupation forces.
“Today we have reason to be happy and celebrate the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Estonia. However, having learned from history, which the Kremlin is trying to rewrite, and considering the reality of today and the intense international situation, we must be in heightened readiness to defend our freedom and independence unconditionally,” Põlluaas said. “We are a member of the NATO, we are no longer alone like we were when the Soviet occupation forces marched into Estonia. Estonia will never again surrender.”
The President of the Riigikogu added that thanks to Estonia’s determination, Russia’s economic collapse, and a strong pressure from the West, particularly USA and several international organisations, the troops had been finally withdrawn. By that time, Russian troops had already been withdrawn from Eastern Europe; Estonia was the last of the Baltic states to see the troops leave.
The President of the Riigikogu has seen no change in the geopolitical ambitions of the Kremlin, or in its relations with neighbouring countries. “They have publicly declared their intention to restore the Soviet Union era empire and spheres of influence. All this is clear from the military aggressions in Georgia and Ukraine, the occupation and annexation of Crimea, and the military bases in several former Soviet republics or countries of the so-called socialist block. And of course from interfering in domestic matters of other countries,” Põlluaas said.
The last Russian units left Estonia on 31 August 1994. This completed the process of the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Estonia. This meant that the occupation, which had started in June 1940, was finally over.
NordenBladet – New data from Statistics Estonia shows life expectancy at birth in 2019 was 74.4 years for males and 82.8 years for females. Men and women are expected to live 70 percent or more of their life in good health but this below the European Union average.
Life expectancy has increased for both sexes and slightly more for males. However, men are expected to live disability-free for 54.1 years and women for 57.6 years.
Ethel Maasing, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said the number of healthy life years increased compared to the year before and there was a positive change in rural areas in particular.
“Compared to 2018, when the indicator of healthy life years dropped to the level seen a decade earlier, Estonian men and women lived healthier in 2019. Males live 72.7 percent of their life in good health and females 70 percent,” she said.
Life expectancy has shown a positive trend for the past 20 years. Last year, female life expectancy increased slightly slower, by a third of a year, than male life expectancy which grew to half a year.
Male life expectancy has reached the level of female life expectancy in 1995. The gap between female and male life expectancy is smallest – at eight years – for people with higher education.
Compared to a decade ago, male life expectancy has increased by three and a half years and female life expectancy by slightly more than two years.
“At that time, it was predicted that women would live almost 10 years longer than men, but by now, the gap has narrowed to eight and a half years. However, both men and women enjoy the same number of healthy life years as ten years earlier. There have been increases and falls over the years, but in the longer term, the indicator has been stable,” explained Maasing.
Life expectancy depends on many factors, the most important of these being the environment, accessibility of healthcare services, safety at work, living standard and health consciousness.
The shorter male life expectancy is not surprising as men are more prone to risk-taking and have a greater share of physically demanding jobs or those posing more risk to health. Among men, there are also more of those who have unhealthy life styles such as higher alcohol consumption and smoking.
According to 2018 data, the average life expectancy for women in Europe was 83.6 years and for men 78.3 years.
Female life expectancy was highest in Spain (86.3) and lowest in Serbia (78.4). Male life expectancy was highest in Switzerland (81.9) and lowest in Latvia (70.1).
Compared to the European Union average, the indicator for males in Estonia is lower by more than four years. Life expectancy for females in Estonia is about a year below the European Union average.
The indicator of healthy life years for women was highest in Malta (73.4) and lowest in Latvia (53.7), and for men, it was highest in Sweden (73.7) and lowest in Latvia (51).
Considering the European Union average, the indicator of healthy life years for males in Estonia is worse than the indicator for females: for males, it is lower by ten years. The indicator for females is eight years below the European average.
NordenBladet – The City of Tartu is to enter into an agreement with AS Alexela for the purchase of electricity for street lighting and the city’s agencies and will become a city consuming only green electricity from next year..
In 2015, Tartu city council established an action plan for the city’s sustainable energy economy, the strategic goal of which is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions related to energy consumption. Based on the goal, the city will enter into an agreement to purchase electricity that will increase the share of green electricity to one hundred percent from next year.
Deputy Mayor Raimond Tamm said: “By transitioning fully to green electricity, the City of Tartu is taking a very long step towards becoming a carbon-neutral local government, because electricity from non-renewable sources accounts for the largest share of our current carbon emissions. The next big challenge for us is to introduce renewable fuels in connection with important services that the city procures, such as waste transport and street maintenance, but the possibility of this transition still needs to be analyzed.”
The contract will be concluded for the purchase of electricity for street lighting and city institutions as well as kindergartens and schools with a total volume of 19,700 MWh per year. Electricity will be purchased in 2021-2022 at the stock exchange price, AS Alexela offered a margin of 0.84 euros per MWh. Electricity supply will start on January 1.
In recent years, Tartu has taken steps to move towards a more sustainable living environment. Today, only renewable energy is used in Tartu’s public transport – all city buses run on biogas and the bicycles of the smart bike share system use green electricity.
In street lighting, energy-intensive sodium lamps are gradually being replaced by energy-efficient LED lamps. City-owned buildings use predominantly district heating, which is produced from renewable energy sources in the extent of approximately 85 percent.
