“We must do more to help Ukraine,” Pakosta said in her speech to her European Union counterparts. “The military assistance to Ukraine should not come mainly from the USA and Great Britain; the European Union must enhance its contribution to increase stable funding by approving at least 50 billion from the Commission’s proposal and in addition to that, 20 billion from Borrell’s proposal.”
“Sanctions against Russia should be strengthened, especially by closing all gaps. Besides that, it is time for both us and the European Commission to start discussing the Common Agricultural Policy, the Cohesion Policy and the long-term budget after the accession of Ukraine,” Pakosta underlined, and added that in the case of Ukraine, a very large country with a low gross domestic product and a very large agricultural sector would be joining the European Union. “The volume of the EU budget must be increased in the interests of safety, “ she emphasised, pointing out that this would make Estonia a net contributor, which is something to be proud of.
At the meeting, the representatives of national parliaments discussed the priorities of the Spanish Presidency, and they will also address the current issues related to the European Union.
COSAC is a cooperation format that brings together the Committees for Union Affairs of the national parliaments of the 27 Member States of the European Union.
The Bill on Amendments to the Value Added Tax Act and the Taxation Act (225 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. The amendments to be made aim to improve the fight against VAT fraud in cross-border e-commerce.
The Bill will establish an obligation for payment service providers to store the data regarding the payees of cross-border payments and to transmit them to the tax authority quarterly if the total number of payments per payee exceeds 25 payments in a quarter. Tax authorities will transmit the data to the European Union’s central electronic system of payment information. The Bill is connected with an EU directive that Members States will have to transpose and implement from next year.
During the debate, Siim Pohlak from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Urmas Reinsalu from Isamaa Parliamentary Group took the floor.
The Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group moved to reject the Bill at the first reading, but the plenary did not support the motion. 13 members of the Riigikogu supported the rejection of the Bill and 69 voted against.
The Bill on Amendments to the Tobacco Act (223 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading in the Riigikogu. According to it, under an EU directive, heated tobacco products with a characterising flavour must no longer be sold.
The Bill will include in the Act the term “heated tobacco product” and the requirements for the contents, labelling and packaging. Under the directive, the exemption for allowing characterising flavours and for the labelling of packages that is currently in place for heated tobacco products will be withdrawn across the EU.
In addition, the Bill will establish penalties for infringement of the requirements for informing of tobacco products and products which are related to tobacco products. Under the Bill, failure to inform of a product will be punishable by a fine in an amount of up to 300 fine units, and by a fine of up to 32,000 euro if the act is committed by a legal person.
Siim Pohlak from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group took the floor during the debate.
The Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group moved to reject the Bill at the first reading, but the motion was not supported. 11 members of the Riigikogu supported a rejection and 61 were against.
The Bill on Amendments to the Language Act (1 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, also passed the first reading in the Riigikogu. It will increase the rates of the fines for violating the Language Act and will include new sanctions in the Act in order to improve compliance with the Language Act in natural and legal persons. The amendments are intended to strengthen the protection of the Estonian language in companies and non-profit organisations as well as in the public sector.
During the debate, Vadim Belobrovtsev from the Centre Party Group and Anti Frosch from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group took the floor.
The Centre Party Group moved to reject the Bill. However, as 10 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 48 voted against, it was not supported.
Six Bills were dropped from the proceedings
The Riigikogu rejected at the first reading the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (4 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group. The discussion had been adjourned at the sitting the day before due to the end of the working hours. The Bill provided that only citizens of Estonia and of the European Union would have the right to vote in municipal council elections. The current Act allows also permanent residents who are citizens of another country or who lack citizenship to vote in local elections.
During the debate, Anti Poolamets from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Eduard Odinets from the Social Democratic Party Group took the floor.
58 members of the Riigikogu supported the motion of the Constitutional Committee to reject the Bill and 18 voted against it.
The Riigikogu rejected the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act and the Language Act (11 SE), initiated by Isamaa Parliamentary Group. The first reading had also been initially scheduled for the agenda for Tuesday’ sitting. The Bill was intended to establish a requirement for people who stand as candidates in local elections under which they would have to be proficient in Estonian at least at B2 level.
During the debate, Riina Solman from Isamaa Parliamentary Group, Eduard Odinets from the Social Democratic Party Group and Henn Põlluaas from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group took the floor.
54 members of the Riigikogu supported the motion of the Constitutional Committee to reject the Bill and 18 were against it.
The Riigikogu rejected at the first reading the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (18 SE), initiated by Isamaa Parliamentary Group. It was intended to repeal the right to vote in municipal council elections for third-country nationals and stateless persons residing in Estonia.
During the debate, Rene Kokk from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, Eduard Odinets from the Social Democratic Party Group and Tõnis Lukas from Isamaa Parliamentary Group took the floor.
54 members of the Riigikogu supported the motion of the Constitutional Committee to reject the Bill and 18 voted against it.
The Riigikogu rejected at the first reading the Bill on Amendments to the State Pension Insurance Act (5 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Group. It was intended to establish an extraordinary pension increase of 50 euro for four consecutive years, that is, for 2024–2027, in order to improve the economic welfare of elderly people.
41 members of the Riigikogu supported the motion of the Social Affairs Committee to reject the Bill and 13 voted against it.
The Riigikogu rejected the Bill on Amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Health Insurance Act (7 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Group. It was intended to restore the earlier procedure for the payment of sickness benefits that had been in place before 1 July where sickness benefit had been paid from the second day of sick leave.
During the debate, Tanel Kiik from the Centre Party Group took the floor.
46 members of the Riigikogu supported the motion of the Social Affairs Committee to reject the Bill and 14 were against it.
The Riigikogu also rejected at the first reading the Bill on Amendments to the State Pension Insurance Act (15 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Group. It was intended to establish widow’s pension in order to support the livelihood of pensioners living alone and to honour long-time marriage. According to the Bill, widow’s pension could have been granted to a person who is of old age pension age and whose spouse, to whom the person has been married for at least ten years, has died by the time of old age pension or retirement due to old age.
During the debate, Andre Hanimägi from the Centre Party Group took the floor.
42 members of the Riigikogu supported the motion of the Social Affairs Committee to reject the Bill and 13 voted against it.
At the beginning of the sitting, the Riigikogu held a moment of silence in memory of the late Member of the Riigikogu Aadu Must.
The 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 purpose of the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (2 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, is to ensure that the work of municipal councils would be conducted in Estonian. According to the Bill, people who stand as candidates in local government elections should be proficient in Estonian at level C1.
Anti Poolamets, who presented the Bill, underlined that, according to law, only Estonian could be the working language of municipal councils, but unfortunately, in numerous councils, members were still not proficient in Estonian or were not using it.
When speaking of the discussion that had taken place in the committee, representative of the Constitutional Committee Katrin Kuusemäe said that the Bill did not specify why it was deemed necessary to establish precisely the language proficiency level C1 for councils. Nor did the Bill contain a procedure for certifying the language proficiency level, or provisions relating to supervision.
During the debate, Henn Põlluaas took the floor on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, and Tõnis Lukas on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group.
The lead committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. Nine members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 18 voted against. Thus, the motion was not supported, and the first reading of the Bill was concluded.
A draft Resolution was dropped from the proceedings
The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a proposal to the Government of the Republic to lower the VAT on food to 5 per cent” (10 OE), submitted by the Estonian Centre Party Group, was intended to make a proposal to the Government to lower the VAT on food to five per cent.
Andrei Korobeinik, who made a report on behalf of the submitters of the draft Resolution, said that, according to the draft Resolution, besides food products, the five per cent VAT rate would also extend to foodstuffs grown in agriculture as well as to the catering services in restaurants and hotels. “We believe that Estonian traders will also lower the prices as soon as the VAT rate drops,” he said.
When presenting the discussion that had taken place in the committee, Chairman of the Finance Committee Annely Akkermann, who made a supplementary report, said that the prevailing opinion had been that VAT should be uniform and, as a rule, the lowering of VAT did not affect the final price at all or did so only partially.
During the debate, Siim Pohlak took the floor on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group.
31 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the draft Resolution. A majority of the votes of the members of the Riigikogu, that is, at least 51 votes in favour would have been needed for the Resolution to be passed. Thus, the draft Resolution was not supported and was dropped from the legislative proceedings.
The proceedings on a Bill were adjourned
According to the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act (4 SE), initiated by the Estonia Conservative People’s Party Group, only citizens of Estonia and of the European Union would have the right to vote in municipal council elections.
Henn Põlluaas, who presented the Bill, said that the granting of the right to vote on the basis of residence permit had not made the governance of local governments better, but rather on the contrary. “We have local governments where, due to a large proportion of non-nationals, the authorities in power are representing a mentality that is hostile towards our country as well as its native people, and do not respect or value the Estonian state or Estonian culture,” Põlluaas said.
Member of the Constitutional Committee Anti Allas presented the discussion that had taken place in the committee. He pointed out that aliens who had a long-term residence permit had the right to vote. A number of requirements must be met in order to obtain the permit: the person must have resided permanently in Estonia for five years before submitting an application for a residence permit, they must have a valid fixed-term residence permit, the data on their place of residence must be in the population register, they must have a stable legal income, and health insurance by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, and they must meet the integration requirement, that is, Estonian language proficiency at least at level B1.
The first reading of the Bill was adjourned due to the end of the working hours of the sitting and will continue with the debate at tomorrow’s sitting.
The first reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Municipal Council Election Act and the Language Act (11 SE), initiated by Isamaa Parliamentary Group, was also deferred to the agenda for the sitting starting at 2 pm. tomorrow.
The 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.)
Hussar said that the Patriarch and the Church had done a lot to defend democratic values and support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s in the latter’s war of aggression. The Ecumenical Patriarch has condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as the pro-war rhetoric of the Patriarch of Moscow. “We must do everything in our power to help Ukraine win the war,” Hussar said.
The President of the Riigikogu explained that support for Ukraine was also a key topic in the parliament. “The importance of parliamentary diplomacy has significantly increased after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a very large part of our foreign policy activities are connected with Ukraine. Church diplomacy plays a similar role in shining a light on the events in Ukraine and in an effort to support the people of Ukraine,” he said.
Hussar and Patriarch Bartholomew also discussed the work of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church as well as questions of climate and the environment, including topics around the green transition.
This is the Ecumenical Patriarch’s fourth visit to Estonia. His visit is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the autonomy of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church and the 30th anniversary of the restoration of its functions.
Photos(Author: (Erik Peinar / Chancellery of the Riigikogu)
In his speech at the opening sitting of the session, Hussar said that the current times and our future goals demanded that, besides strengthening our security, we also conducted deep parliamentary debate in many key areas of Estonia’s future. He mentioned Estonia’s contribution to education, as well as discussions on the environment and the need to sort out the state finances.
“All vital and major decisions in Estonia are to be made in the Riigikogu. In order to secure high-quality and thoughtful decisions, we need high-quality debate. We can do this by remaining respectful towards each other and also willing to engage in a debate,” Hussar underlined, pointing out that the parliamentary working rhythm had been seriously disturbed since spring and the Riigikogu was flooded with interpellations and Bills.
According to Hussar, many of the more than 500 Bills and interpellations have been submitted for obstructive purposes, therefore it was necessary to restrict their submission during the Spring Session. “The parliament also has several other functions under the Constitution besides ensuring the right of the MPs to submit Bills and interpellations. Another key task of the parliament in addition to parliamentary debate is passing resolutions and legislation,” he said.
“Ever since spring, the Board of the Riigikogu and the Council of Elders have spent countless hours and huge amounts of energy to find a common ground that would in some way help reduce the burden of interpellations and Bills that has been set on the shoulders of the parliament, but sadly to no avail so far. It is easy to say that the parliament needs to solve all the conflicts in its work internally. I one hundred percent agree. This is why I remind all the Members of the Riigikogu that ensuring the parliament’s ability to work is the duty of all its members, and it follows from their oath of office. It is unthinkable that ensuring this ability to work would come at the price of hindering the Riigikogu from fulfilling all its constitutional functions,” Hussar emphasised.
He called on all Members of the Riigikogu to contemplate how they could ensure that both the rights of the opposition and the also coalition were protected, and whether the rules of procedure of the Riigikogu needed amending in that respect. “But I would go even further. Because we find ourselves in a fairly novel situation, I propose setting up an initiative that would involve an even wider range of people. This would not be the first time to involve civil society and experts into resolving a political impasse, and the results have been positive before,” Hussar said.
The President of the Riigikogu noted that he would like to involve experts of constitutional law, as well as previous Presidents of the Riigikogu and renowned experts in relevant fields in the initiative of resolving the confrontation, so that a solution could be found to the current situation by means of deliberative democracy. “The key question is how to overcome the conflict in the parliament so that the majority could implement its policies and the minority had the right to be heard. Another topic is how and when to use the votes of confidence approach in making decisions. An outsider’s viewpoint could be the useful input that would spark the discussion on possible solutions in the Riigikogu working groups,” he said.
The seminar will begin at 2 p.m. The first panel discussion of the seminar will be dedicated to good parliamentary practices that parliaments and their members can use. Among other things, information disclosure, as well as code of ethics, transparency of lobbying and declarations of interests will be spoken about.
The second panel discussion will focus on the role of parliament in anti-corruption policy-making. Topics such as beneficial ownership, whistleblowers, public expenditure, as well as oversight of the executive branch will be addressed. Member of the Riigikogu Margit Sutrop will participate in the discussion.
The Seminar will take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and will be live streamed on the Riigikogu web page. The language of the seminar is English.
The seminar takes place within the framework of the Open Government Partnership Global Summit, which is held in Tallinn, Estonia, on 6 and 7 September. The seminar is organised in the cooperation of the Riigikogu, Open Parliament e-Network and Open Government Partnership.
NordenBladet —The reserve units of Territorial Defence Region North formed in Tapa on Saturday began field training yesterday, where soldiers underwent weapons and medical training and weapons life fire excercises. “First impressions are good. The equipment distribution this time was much faster than on the two previous occasions when I was …
NordenBladet —This week the exercise “Ussisõnad” (Parseltongue) got underway in Estonia, during which nearly 10,000 reservists from the territorial defence units will refresh their individual basic military knowledge and skills. Additionally, maneuvers will be conducted at the platoon and company levels to practice engaging the adversary, setting up ambushes, and erecting …
Hussar will deliver a speech on the Black Ribbon Day, when the victims of the totalitarian regimes of the past are remembered, the cooperation between the Nordic Countries and the Baltic States is celebrated, and support to Ukraine is expressed on the Independence Day of the country.
The discussions at the meeting of the speakers of the Nordic and Baltic (NB8) parliaments will focus on the current trends of parliamentary cooperation, foreign and security policy, as well as the new possibilities for Nordic-Baltic and transatlantic cooperation, considering Finland’s recent and Sweden’s upcoming accession to NATO. Cooperation in topical issues in the international interparliamentary organisations will also be spoken about.
Hussar will also have a bilateral meeting with Speaker of the Riksdag (Parliament of Sweden) Andreas Norlén. “We appreciate the close bilateral relations and high-level visits between the two countries. This year, the meetings of heads of state, the Prime Ministers, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other ministers have taken place. The crowning point of our relations was the meaningful and memorable state visit by the King of Sweden in May,” Hussar said. He underlined that we were very much looking forward to Sweden’s accession to NATO as it would be important for the whole Alliance and especially to the security of the Baltic Sea Region.
Hussar noted that the report on the future cooperation between Estonia and Sweden set out four priority areas where the authors of the report saw the greatest potential for further cooperation. These are digitalisation, climate, energy policy and sustainable forestry.
Kivimägi thanked the government and people of Japan for their significant assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia. “I want to express my thanks to the Japanese people who are supporting peace around the world to such a massive extent. All in all, Japan has donated eight billion euros in support of Ukraine, which is a colossal sum of money,” Kivimägi said.
The Vice-President of the Riigikogu emphasised that the war was not being waged between Ukraine and Russia alone, but that the democratic world was fighting autocratic regimes. “If Russia wins, it will only be a matter of time before it attacks another democratic country,” Kivimägi predicted.
The Vice-President of the House of Councillors agreed that the international security situation had never been this complicated, which makes cooperation between countries with similar values more important than ever before. He admitted that Japan might seem like a faraway country but actually Estonia and Japan were only separated by one single neighbour – Russia. Nagahama also expressed his hope that the visit of the Japanese parliamentary delegation would encourage cooperation between the two countries, and at a broader level than just between the parliaments.
The two Vice-Presidents and their colleagues also engaged in an exchange of ideas on digitalisation and IT, EXPO in Japan, flight connections, car tax system in Japan, and the longevity of the Japanese. In 2023, the life expectancy in Japan has attained 85 years of age. The Chairman of the Estonia-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Group Raimond Kaljulaid also took part in the meeting.