Chairman of the National Defence Committee Kalev Stoicescu said that Finland’s accession to NATO had provided the opportunity to have closer defence cooperation and to strengthen the deterrence and defence posture in the whole Baltic Sea region. In his opinion, Russia will remain a constant threat to NATO and the Allies must take this into account in their activities.
Stoicescu underlined the importance of NATO’s regional defence plans that were approved at the Vilnius Summit, but noted that the plans alone would not protect our security. According to him, the plans have to be jointly exercised and filled with real capabilities. “We very much look forward to Sweden becoming a member of NATO as soon as possible,” he said.
At the meeting, the Defence Committees also discussed the need to continue supporting Ukraine. “The West must remain patient and continue giving military, political and economic assistance to Ukraine as long as Ukraine needs it,” Stoicescu said.
He highlighted the decision taken by the European Union, at Estonia’s proposal, to acquire one million artillery shells to help Ukraine, and noted that this promise must be met as soon as possible. “The Committees agreed that the Western countries had to significantly increase the capabilities of their defence industries. In the neighbourhood of aggressive Russia, it is especially important that we had adequate supplies of weapons and ammunition. We also have to continue supporting Ukraine,” he said.
The Defence Committee of the Eduskunta of Finland is on a two-day visit to Estonia. Today, they also had meetings with Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence Kusti Salm and Commander of the Defence Forces, General Martin Herem. Tomorrow, the delegation consisting of 14 MPs will visit the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn and the military base in Tapa.
The National Defence Committee of the Riigikogu and the Defence Committee of the Eduskunta have been cooperating closely and holding annual working meetings since 1993.
Photos (Erik Peinar / Chancellery of the Riigikogu)
Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee Eduard Odinets said that the Bill would help companies detect significant breaches and ensure the confidentiality and protection of reporting persons. “In the future, the employees will have the possibility to inform the employer in a secure manner when they see that something is done wrong at the workplace. It is of course possible to report problems now, but the Bill will help ensure that breaches can be reported without having to fear loss of work or unfair treatment,” Odinets said. “If a company creates the necessary channels for reporting of breaches, it shows a wish to prevent breaches and eliminate them as soon as possible.”
It was pointed out at the sitting that the Bill would be applied to reporting of breaches in such areas as public procurements, prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing as well as public health. It will be possible to report internally or to a competent authority, and the whistleblower must have grounds to believe that the information is true. It was also noted at the sitting that several companies were interested in reporting channels and the new Act so that the employees would not be discouraged to inform the employee of potential breaches and the problems could be solved internally.
According to the Bill, knowingly reporting wrong information would be punishable. Hindering reporting or retaliating against whistleblowers would also be punishable. Thus, the rules to be established by the Bill would help preclude malicious reporting.
Currently there is no common and cross-sectoral whistleblower protection regulation in the Estonian law. In the future, administrative agencies, enterprises having 50 or more workers and municipal agencies will have the obligation to establish internal reporting channels. The amendment is connected with the whistleblower protection directive of the EU, and the Bill will focus narrowly on reporting breaches of European Union law. The Member States were obliged to transpose the directive by December 2021.
Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet and Mare Tannberg, Adviser at the Department of Criminal Law and Procedure of the Criminal Policy Division of the Ministry of Justice, participated in the sitting and presented the Bill.
The Legal Affairs Committee decided to send the Bill on the Protection of Persons Reporting Work-related Breaches of Union Law (257 SE) initiated by the Government, to the first reading at the plenary sitting of the Riigikogu on 18 October.
Chair of the European Union Affairs Committee Liisa Pakosta noted that as Russia’s war in Ukraine continued, many homes and workplaces in Ukraine had been destroyed and civilians were still being murdered, continuing of support to war refugees was clearly necessary. “Many people cannot return home because their homes no longer exist or they have to run to shelters every night. The Riigikogu decided to extend granting of temporary protection to Ukrainian refugees. This will give each Ukrainian family a possibility to decide whether they continue to need temporary protection and when they can return home, because before that, new homes, workplaces or maybe whole settlements have to be rebuilt,” Pakosta said.
Deputy Chair of the Committee Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski pointed out that Ukraine was interested in the returning of its people to their homes, but at the moment, the country most of all needed weapons to fight for its territory and freedom. “At the moment, the Ukrainian refugees have no place they can return to. When the time comes, we are naturally ready to support it,” Jufereva-Skuratovski said. She added that it was clear that Ukraine would need to carry out extensive reconstruction work before that.
It was stated at the meeting that one-year extension meant an additional need of 1.6 million, which would cover the costs relating to both international and temporary protection. It was also pointed out that if the war continued after a year, the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive could be extended again, but this would have to be a decision taken by all Member States.
The European Union Affairs Committee approved Estonia’s positions for the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting that will be held in Brussels on Thursday. The representatives of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Parliamentary Group abstained at the voting, saying that it was necessary to deal separately with deserters, whose maintenance was not right in their opinion.
For more information, please contact: Liisa Pakosta, phone +372 502 6191
“Cooperation with Russia is also out of the question in space. The aim of the European space sector should be total isolation of Russia, in order to raise our capability in space together with Ukraine in the future,” Head of the Estonian Delegation to the European Interparliamentary Space Conference Mario Kadastik said.
Head of the Estonian delegation Mario Kadastik and member of the delegation Tõnis Lukas attend the session.
Kadastik explained that the aim of the EISC is to offer the national parliaments of Europe an opportunity to exchange information, hold discussions and make analyses relating to the space policy sector. The resolutions adopted at the meetings of the EISC are not binding for the national parliaments, but the organisation helps define the role of the legislators of European countries in dealing with space issues.
Estonia’s activities in the space sector are closely connected with membership in the European Space Agency (ESA) and the space programme of the European Union. In the Estonian space sector, the ESA performs the role of a procurement agency until a relevant state structure is established.
The purpose of Estonia’s space programme is to enable the development of high-technology based business in Estonia and, as a result, increase the export of products and services, develop the local space industry, education and science. It is important to improve the position of Estonian companies in the supply chain and contribute to the emergence of main contractors in Estonia.
After the annual session, the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the European Space Policy Institute are also held in the Parliament of Austria, where the representatives of the European Space Agency and other space sector stakeholders are invited.
The European Interparliamentary Space Conference was established in 1999. Its full members are the national parliaments of the Member States of the European Union and the European Space Agency that have created a parliamentary body dealing with space affairs.
“Repairing of things is very important for the environment, because the longer a thing is used, the smaller its environmental impact is,” Chair of the European Union Affairs Committee Liisa Pakosta said. She explained that the Committee had discussed the initiative regarding the repair of goods at two sittings in summer and decided to significantly amend Estonia’s positions on this issue.
“Just making an additional webpage funded by the state or sending a washing machine from Võru to France to be repaired are not reasonable solutions. The Riigikogu Committee in every way supports the idea that goods must be repaired more, but the obligations should be appropriate and reasonably enforceable. We found in our Committee that instead of imposing the obligation to repair on the producers, it would be of greater help if the producers had the obligation to ensure access to all spare parts and repair instructions to local repairers and end users in Estonia. If all spare parts can be ordered online and the drawings necessary for making repairs are accessible, it will also contribute to reducing transport footprint,” Pakosta said about the changes the Riigikogu had introduced into Estonia’s positions.
If the EU wanted to create a webpage to help find local repair services, it should be done centrally in the Committee’s opinion. Pakosta added that the information necessary for repairing should be communicated to the user already before ordering the work from the repairer, and it was also the usual practice because it was often asked what the repairs would cost and how long it would take. The Riigikogu does not support the creation of a long repair information form for comparing the repair offers that was proposed in the European Commission initiative.
The European Union Affairs Committee discussed the positions submitted by the Government at its sittings on 7 and 21 July and decided to amend them significantly in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. The amended positions were presented to the Government, who supported the positions proposed by the Committee at its yesterday’s sitting. Thus, Estonia’s positions regarding the initiative are approved and the representatives of Estonia can proceed from them at the negotiations held in Europe.
For more information, please contact: Liisa Pakosta, phone +372 502 6191
“The Baltic States and the Nordic Countries hold a common opinion that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is a threat to our region and to the whole Europe. Therefore, we first agreed that we will help Ukraine in post-war reconstruction. We also need a comprehensive defence cooperation policy that includes cyber security as well as increasing the resilience of the Baltic and Nordic societies to the fake news and propaganda coming from authoritarian regimes,” Suslov said.
On behalf of the Nordic Council, the document was signed by President of the Nordic Council Jorodd Asphjell.
The list of cooperation priorities also includes supporting transition to democracy in the Eastern Partnership countries, energy security of the region, alignment of the transport and energy infrastructures and ensuring digital interoperability, mitigation of climate change and sustainable, energy efficient circular economy, as well as compatibility of education systems, including mutual recognition of higher education diplomas.
The annual summit of the BA and the Nordic Council started today at 11 a.m. in the Conference Hall of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia). The summit will have two panels which will focus on cyber defence cooperation and supporting the Eastern Partnership countries in transition to democracy. The sitting is chaired by President of the BA Timo Suslov. Member of the Presidium Enn Eesmaa and Chairman of the Security Committee of the BA Peeter Tali also participate in the sitting. Before the official start of the summit, the delegations of the BA and NC visited the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn.
37 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution and 19 against it.
The Riigikogu did not support the proposal to waive the increase in VAT
The Riigikogu did not pass the Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a proposal to the Government of the Republic to abandon the plan to increase VAT by two percentage points” (96 OE).
Kersti Sarapuu (Centre Party) took the floor during the debate.
23 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution and one was against it. At least 51 votes were needed to pass the Resolution.
The Riigikogu rejected two Bills at the first reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Security Authorities Act (30 SE), initiated by Members of the Riigikogu Ants Frosch, Leo Kunnas, and Alar Laneman intended to amend the Act by adding the Military Intelligence Centre of the Defence Forces to the list of security authorities and clarifying the tasks of the security authorities.
Leo Kunnas (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) took the floor during the debate.
The Constitutional Committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 44 members of the Riigikogu backed the motion and 16 members of the Riigikogu were against it. The Bill was dropped from the legislative proceedings.
The purpose of the Bill on Amendments to the Family Benefits Act (49 SE) is to equalise child benefits by paying EUR 100 per month for the first and second child of the family as well.
The Social Affairs Committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 43 members of the Riigikogu backed the motion and 11 members of the Riigikogu were against it. The Bill was dropped from the legislative proceedings.
Video recordings of the sittings of the Riigikogu can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/riigikogu. (Please note that the recording will be uploaded with a delay.)
According to the Chancellor of Justice, during a year, her agency can see all aspects of the life in Estonia in complaints. “People can write to us as they can and describe their problem. No legal aid is needed for that. And it is our task to understand what the crux of the matter is,” Madise said.
The Chancellor of Justice said that, when they saw a probable infringement of someone’s rights, they added argumentation that the person could transpose directly into an action to an administrative court if they wished. According to her, there is a large number of such cases, and they include, for example, cases related to nursery places. Under the law, children must be ensured nursery places and pre-school education.
“To quote a very wittily written decision of the Supreme Court, children and parents must not be placed in a disadvantageous situation because their place of residence is in a rural municipality or city that has decided just not to comply with the law,” Madise pointed out. According to her, the judicial practice has begun to help parents, but the shortage of nursery places continues to be a systemic problem. “There are also local governments who honestly write in a regulation – and the word ‘honest’ has no positive meaning here – that they will provide a nursery place when there is place. Actually, it is known on the basis of the data in the population register how many children who are about to reach nursery or school age live in the local government,” she explained.
According to the Chancellor of Justice, there are certainly also cases where it is beyond their competence to resolve the matter according to the law. They must explain as an institution that they do not change court decisions, do not change the diagnoses made by doctors, and cannot grant social housing either. There are people who do not understand this and remain angry. “And it is of no avail to blame people for not making decisions if one or another decision is not within their competence. If it makes people feel better, I do not mind. But it is a little better if people spend their energy and time on turning to the authorities where they could really get help,” Madise said.
During the debate, Anti Allas took the floor on behalf of the Social Democratic Party Group, Maris Lauri on behalf of the Reform Party Group, Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart on behalf of the Centre Party Group, Urmas Reinsalu on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group, Hendrik Johannes Terras on behalf of Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group and Anti Poolamets on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group.
The first reading of a Bill was adjourned
The first reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Higher Education Act (9 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, will continue at the plenary sitting beginning at 2 p.m. tomorrow. It provides for stopping the domination of the English language in Estonian universities in public law and national institutions of professional higher education.
The first reading of two Bill was deferred to the next plenary sitting
Due to the end of the working hours of the sitting, the first reading of two Bills was also postponed to tomorrow’s plenary sitting. They are the Bill on Amendments to the Study Allowances and Study Loans Act (16 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, and the Bill on Amendments to the Value Added Tax Act (32 SE), initiated by Members of the Riigikogu Rene Kokk and Siim Pohlak.
The Minister of Health Riina Sikkut replied to the interpellation concerning the shortage of psychologists (No. 54), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Andre Hanimägi, Jaanus Karilaid, Jaak Aab and Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski.
According to the interpellators, the number of people who are suffering from psychological problems has increased in recent years, but the healthcare system is unable to meet the need sufficiently and there is a shortage of psychologists. Concerned by this, the interpellators asked how the Government was planning to ensure a sufficient number of psychologists in the future.
Sikkut noted that, as society had been dealing with the COVID-crisis and war refugees, there was less stigma, and people spoke more of mental health concerns. According to her, the opportunities to seek help have also improved. “However, the fact that there are more mental health concerns, people are more aware of them and hopefully also seek help more certainly also creates a need for more specialists to address these concerns,” the Minister of Health admitted.
The Minister pointed out that 15 clinical psychologists and 14 psychologist/counsellors were currently studying in their induction year, and another 14 qualified clinical psychologists and 14 qualified psychologist/counsellors could be expected by the end of 2024. She pointed out that, in order to motivate work in the health care system, on the decision of the supervisory board of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, the remuneration rate of psychologists had been increased by an additional coefficient. That allows for medical institutions to raise the remuneration additionally by an average of 38 per cent, and until 30 November it is possible for local governments to apply for support to employ psychologists in order to provide services at local level.
Sikkut added that experts were developing a gradual system for providing mental health assistance. According to the Minister, besides increasing state-commissioned education, one possible solution to the issue of the shortage of employees is to delegate simpler tasks for example to clinical assistants at health centres and support specialists at schools who have been trained to provide mental health first aid. Sikkut pointed out that there were also evidence-based measures such as the anti-bullying programme KiVa implemented at schools that helped prevent health issues. According to her, the training of mental health nurses working at health centres has been enhanced, and advice is also available online.
According to the Minister, so far, the training of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists has been going on, and the training of mental health nurses is ongoing. However, so far, there have been few low-threshold interventions and there has been no plan for them. “The Mental Health Green Paper and action plan have been drawn up now, and based on this we are providing minimally-invasive interventions on a larger scale in order that it would be possible to relieve the shortage of specialists by solving simpler health problems closer to people, whether it be at work or school or at local government level,” Sikkut said.
The Minister of Health also replied to the interpellation concerning the establishment of Tallinn Hospital (No. 53), submitted by members of the Estonian Centre Party Group.
The Riigikogu also heard the replies of the Minister of Culture Heidy Purga to the interpellations concerning the construction of the new building of Tallinn City Theatre (No. 49), the 100,000 euro allocated by the former Minister of Culture Piret Hartman for the establishment of Tähetorni Sports and Health Club (No. 51), and the international sports competitions held in Estonia (No. 16), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu.
The Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology Tiit Riisalo replied to the interpellation concerning equal treatment in work life (No. 74), and the Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets replied to the interpellation concerning the removal of the statue of the Bronze Soldier (No. 45), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu.
The Riigikogu removed parliamentary immunity from Kert Kingo
At its today’s sitting, on the proposal of the Chancellor of Justice, the Riigikogu gave its consent to the removal of parliamentary immunity from Member of the Riigikogu Kert Kingo and the continuation of legal proceedings against her.
When presenting the application of the Prosecutor General, the Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise said that, according to suspicion, Kert Kingo had borne the costs of a lawyer incurred by third persons, and had given the lawyer written instructions to write on invoices that they were for legal aid provided to her in connection with her work as a Member of the Riigikogu, so that they would be reimbursed to her on the basis of expense claims. Madise added that, according to the file, the lawyer had actually advised other persons in legal proceedings and had not provided such legal aid related to the work of a Member of the Riigikogu. “When the Board of the Riigikogu specified the procedure for the reimbursement of work-related expenses of members of Riigikogu, those written instructions to write false data on the invoices were further supplemented by requests to write the numbers of certain Bills on the invoices,” the Chancellor of Justice added.
The Chancellor of Justice noted that, when she had examined the materials of the criminal case, no circumstance had become apparent that would have allowed her not to forward the application of the Prosecutor General to the Riigikogu. “Only the court can decide on the admissibility of evidence and on guilt. Neither the submission of this application and proposal nor the potential removal of parliamentary immunity mean that Kert Kingo is guilty of such crimes. Justice is administered solely by the courts, and if guilt is not proved the person is acquitted,” Madise emphasised.
Member of the Riigikogu Kert Kingo also made a comment.
During the debate, Martin Helme, Kalle Grünthal, Helle-Moonika Helme, Varro Vooglaid, Mart Helme and Ants Frosch from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Jürgen Ligi from the Estonian Reform Party Group took the floor.
66 members of the Riigikogu voted for the proposal of the Chancellor of Justice and 13 voted against. There was one abstention.
At the beginning of the sitting, the interpellation concerning deceitful policy (No. 89) was removed from the agenda for this working week on an agreement between the interpellator Urmas Reinsalu and the Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology Tiit Riisalo.
Video recording of the sitting will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
(Please note that the recording will be uploaded with a delay.)
The Deputy Chairman of the EUAC Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski called the improvement of air quality and the consequent protection of human health as a noble and vital goal. “We must understand that the new requirements will somewhat raise the price of vehicles,” said the Deputy Chairman, pointing out that the rise in prices must remain minimal because the planned rise in VAT and income taxes might otherwise negatively affect the accessibility of cars in Estonia. “It is also important to make sure that the initiative does not constitute an impediment to developing and introducing vehicles with zero CO2 emissions,” she added.
In addition to reducing vehicle emissions, the Euro 7 standards aim to uniformise the emission standards which have previously depended on the type of vehicle and the source of fuel, and to ensure that the vehicles remain sustainable longer in real life conditions. For Estonia, it is important to achieve a balance between the introduction of technological innovations and the subsequent rise in prices.
The initiative does not concern only emissions, but also pollution from breaks and tyres. Estonia is of a position that ice grip tyres should remain outside the scope of the initiative, otherwise the regulation might reduce their grip and lead to a significant increase in their prices.
Air pollution caused an estimated 300,000 premature deaths in the EU in 2018. The main source of air pollution in cities is road transport. The European Commission predicts that the new requirements will increase the price of vehicles to some extent; however, the burden to the health care system will be reduced and the whole society will gain EUR 133 billion due to the reduction in dangerous air pollution.
The Committee meeting was attended by the Ministry of Climate Deputy Secretary General for Transport Sander Salmu who presented the initiative.
The EUAC decided to approve the Government’s positions on the proposal for a regulation on type-approval of motor vehicles and engines and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) COM(2022) 586 in line with the opinions of the Environment Committee and the Economic Affairs Committee.