The Riigikogu heard the annual report by Minister of Culture
At today's sitting, Minister of Culture Heidy Purga delivered her traditional annual address to the Riigikogu in which she introduced the implementation of Estonia's integration, cultural and sports policy goals.
Purga emphasized that the knowledge and spiritual values passed on through culture helped us to remain a vibrant and dynamic nation. “Not to mention that investments in culture and sports strengthen both our international reputation and national security,” Purga said in her speech.
According to the Minister of Culture, people are actively participating in cultural life and, statistically, every second person visits cultural institutions. “Last year, we received the results of the latest survey on participation in culture from Statistics Estonia. It was revealed that, in 2023, as many as 79% of the population took part in cultural life. We have recovered from the setbacks of the crisis era that began with COVID and have returned to the strong levels of 2017. More than 891,000 people aged 15 and over participated in culture. The most visited places were cinemas (52%), concerts (47%), museums (44%) and theatres (40%),” Purga said. However, she pointed out as a concern that the interest of young people under the age of 15 in participating in culture is still on a downward trend.
According to Purga, it is very important to value the work and creativity of creative individuals and take steps to support their livelihood. “For example, we amended the law so that it would be possible to pay the fee for creative work that goes along with social guarantees through the Cultural Endowment, and this option has been used very widely. In just one year, nearly a hundred creative individuals have received social guarantees that they previously lacked, with the help of the Cultural Endowment. As another crucial step, in 2024 we also made a decision to increase support for the Remuneration Fund,” the Minister of Culture said.
Purga emphasized that, even in more challenging times, the state must systematically work towards increasing social cohesion and equal opportunities in both education and the labour market. She pointed out that, today, representatives of more than 200 different nationalities live in Estonia, who, despite their differences, see Estonia as their home. Purga pointed out that the country’s integration policy must also take into account the security aspect. “In the case of communities with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, it is important to also consider mentality and the will to protect, in addition to language skills. The Integration Monitoring showed that the identity choice of residents of other nationalities in favour of the Estonian and Western cultural space has strengthened compared to before, but even more efforts need to be made in this direction.”
The Minister of Culture confirmed in her speech that Estonia would continue to support Ukrainian culture both locally and internationally. “We stand for culture to have a worthy place in the European Union’s resources and support funds allocated for the reconstruction of Ukraine. We support cultural and sports projects in Ukraine, participate in reconstruction work together with Estonian development cooperation partners, and stand in every way for the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage internationally. We also block cultural and sporting cooperation with Russia and Belarus and their propaganda,” Purga said.
Speaking about developments in the field of sports, the Minister of Culture said that 2024 had been a busy year for athletes, coaches, and sports managers alike. Speaking about top-level sport, she said, “2024 was the year of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. 25 Estonian athletes participated in 13 events at the Summer Olympics. We did not win a medal, but we achieved 10 top ten places in 7 sports. This shows our versatility. Five athletes represented Estonia at the Paralympic Games,” Purga said.
According to the Minister of Culture, there is good reason to be pleased that the number of amateur athletes in sports organisations and schools rose by seven per cent last year. “At the same time, it is saddening that 75% of our young people continue to get less than an hour of exercise a day. As a country, we have set a target of two thirds of the population exercising for 30 minutes at least twice a week, but the latest measurements show that only 45% of people exercise that much today,” she said. Purga added that more qualified coaches were needed to achieve exercise goals. “Currently, the number of new young coaches is far from sufficient. One of the reasons for this is that the salary is too low,” the Minister of Culture expressed concern.
Madis Kallas from the Social Democratic Party Group, Vadim Belobrovtsev from the Centre Party Group, Liina Kersna from the Reform Party Group, Kadri Tali from Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group, Anti Poolamets from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Tõnis Lukas from Isamaa Parliamentary Group took the floor during the debate.
A Bill passed the first reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Law of Obligations Act and Amendments to Other Acts arising therefrom (613 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. Its aim is to allow people to use their bank cards in certain shops, petrol stations and pharmacies in an emergency, even if the internet service is interrupted.
Under the Bill, banks selected as critical entities will also have to start offering customers offline card payment options: the bank will have to set an offline individual limit on the chip of the customer’s bank card, and merchants’ payment terminals will have to be able to process offline card payments. This will ensure that people can buy critically important essential goods such as food, fuel, and medicines even if the merchant’s payment terminal fails and is not connected to the bank’s payment system.
Five banks have been designated as critical entities in Estonia: SEB Bank, Swedbank, Luminor Bank, LHV Bank and Coop Bank. Among fuel retailers, Alexela, Olerex, Circle-K, Neste Estonia, Terminal, Premium 7 and Jetoil are critical entities, but no critical entities have yet been selected for grocery stores and pharmacies.
Secondly, the Bill will change the regulation for opening and closing a private individual’s payment account with basic features, i.e. the account used for making the most essential payment transactions. Among other things, it will provide clear grounds for when a bank can close a consumer’s bank account. For example, this will be possible in the event of reasonable suspicion of money laundering or if the consumer has used the account for illegal activities.
The Bill will also specify the payment of state fees in cash and will provide that the authority to which the state fee is paid may decide that it can also be paid in cash in amounts greater than EUR 10. In addition, the Bill will amend the competences of the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority and the Financial Supervision Authority in misdemeanour and supervisory proceedings related to the financial sector.
Formation of a parliamentary friendship group and a support group
After the plenary assembly sitting, members of the Riigikogu are planning to form Estonia-Chile Parliamentary Friendship Group on the initiative of Member of the Riigikogu Helmen Kütt and the Support Group for Making State Budget Understandable on the initiative of Member of the Riigikogu Peeter Ernits.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Maiki Vaikla
+372 631 6456, +372 5666 9508
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