The Riigikogu concluded the first reading of five Bills.

The Bill on Amendments to the Family Benefits Act and Other Acts (507 SE), initiated by the Government, will reduce the upper limit for parental benefit from 2026 which will be two times the average salary in the year preceding the calendar year prior to the year of birth of the child or the year in which the right to receive the parental benefit arises, instead of three times the average salary. This year, the upper limit was EUR 4733.53. At the same time, parental benefit will no longer be reduced if the parent earns income from work.

The amendments to the Health Insurance Act will provide that the basic rate of cost-sharing per prescription for persons with health insurance will increase from EUR 2.5 to EUR 3.5 from 2025. From 1 April 2025, the hospital in-patient fee will rise from EUR 2.5 to EUR 5 and the visit fee for out-patient specialised medical care will increase from EUR 5 to EUR 20. The visit fee will not increase for more vulnerable people and will therefore continue to be five euro for people receiving subsistence benefit, people with reduced capacity for work, children under 19 years of age, pregnant women, people over 63 years of age, and the unemployed.

Where a provider of out-patient specialised medical care leaves an insured person under observation or treatment and follow-up visits are necessary, it will be allowed to ask for a visit fee once a year in the future. In the future, similar rights and restrictions on requesting visit fees will also apply to persons equal to healthcare workers, such as physiotherapists, clinical psychologists, and speech therapists, who independently provide outpatient healthcare services based on a referral from a provider of family or specialised medical care.

For the first time, an upper limit will be established for the benefit for temporary incapacity for work. From 2026, the upper limit for the benefit for temporary incapacity for work per day will be two times the amount of the average salary in the year preceding the calendar year prior to the year in which the right to receive the benefit arises, divided by 30, similarly to parental benefit. Employers and sole proprietors will be able to compensate the difference between the upper limit of the benefit and the loss of remuneration free of social tax.

From 2026, the state will no longer pay social security contributions for an insured person’s non-working spouse or registered partner who is raising one or two children aged between 3 and 8, or three to six children none of whom is under 8.

At the same time, the Bill will allow the Estonian Health Insurance Fund to use its profits brought forward to a larger extent in order to cover deficit. It will also establish the possibility to recover the cost of treatment of people without health insurance. In addition, the procedural deadlines for granting family benefits, identifying the degree of severity of disabilities, and granting state pensions will be extended to 30 working days from 2025.

Representatives of parliamentary groups took the floor during the debate: Kert Kingo as representative of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Parliamentary Group, Riina Solman as representative of Isamaa Parliamentary Group, Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski as representative of the Reform Party Parliamentary Group and Lauri Laats as representative of the Centre Party Group.

The Estonian Conservative People’s Party Parliamentary Group and the Estonian Centre Party Group moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. The motion was not supported. 20 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of it and 46 were against. The first reading of the Bill was concluded.

The purpose of the Bill on Amendments to the Plant Propagation and Plant Variety Rights Act and the Forest Act (473 SE), initiated by the Government, is to solve the bottlenecks that have arisen due to the development of the field and to create more flexible solutions for undertakings by establishing exceptions.

According to the current Act, the seed and propagating material to be marketed must comply with the established requirements, and the seed and propagating material of a variety that is to be included in the variety list and to be marketed must be certified. The Bill will establish an exception, according to which seed and propagating material of old varieties marketed in small quantities may be produced, certified, and packaged differently from what is required by law. In doing so, care will have to be taken not to spread dangerous plant pests. The amendment will encourage the production and marketing of seed and propagating material of old varieties.

The Bill will also re-establish the possibility of including known varieties of fruit and berry crops in the variety sheet on the basis of a variety description that meets the requirements. Thus, suppliers will also be able to propagate and market the propagating material of known varieties of fruit and berry crops that have not yet been included in the variety list. It will also create the possibility for seed potato suppliers to print their own labels on seed potato packages which is a faster and more flexible solution for suppliers.

In addition, it will establish an obligation to notify the Environmental Board of an intention to carry out trials on cultivation material for the purposes of breeding tree crops or conducting scientific research or to determine whether the production of forestry material from the cultivation material would be economically viable.

The Bill on Amendments to the Public Transport Act (499 SE), initiated by the Government, will streamline the regulation of travel concessions in public transport and will bring it into conformity with the decision of the European Court of Justice on compensation of the obligation to carry children of pre-school age and persons with disabilities free of charge. The European Court of Justice has ruled that, under a European Union Regulation, undertakings must be compensated for the costs arising from the obligation, which have not been fully compensated in Estonia so far. The Bill will introduce a basis for the payment of targeted subsidies to commercial operators for transporting passengers with the right to travel free of charge. It also provides for the principles for calculating the compensation, the list of data to be submitted for the application for support and the procedure for payment and reimbursement of support.

Ando Kiviberg (Estonia 200) took the floor during the debate.

The Bill on Amendments to the Competition Act (466 SE), initiated by the Government, will create a solution that will enable European Union block exemptions to also be applied in national competition law.

Block exemptions are one of the most used tools of EU competition law. Block exemptions cover a large number of types of contracts common in commercial activities which, despite anti-competitive provisions, have a positive impact on consumers and the economy. The block exemptions established by the European Commission apply to Estonian undertakings if their agreements have an impact on trade between member states.

The proposed solution is a “hybrid solution”, where, on the one hand, EU block exemptions become essentially directly applicable in national competition law, but on the other hand, the country is left with the possibility to review such block exemptions in advance and to provide a confirmation by a Regulation of the Minister that such block exemptions are appropriate and necessary for the Estonian legal order.

The possibility of establishing national block exemptions by Government regulation has also been retained. This solution will allow ensure legal certainty and effective competition oversight while at the same time reducing administrative and bureaucratic burdens. It will also help to increase legal certainty for undertakings and save costs related to legal counselling.

The amended regulation will not affect the current competitive situation. There is currently one block exemption on vertical agreements, established by a Government regulation, in force in Estonia. As a result of the amendment, six block exemptions will apply, of which the block exemptions concerning rail, road and inland waterway transport and technology transfer agreements have not yet been transposed.

With the Bill on Amendments to the Government of the Republic Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (505 SE), initiated by the Government, the Ministry of Justice will be renamed the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs and the digital development sector functions of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications will also be transferred to it.

According to an amendment, tasks related to digital society policy, public e-services, digital development and cybersecurity, state information systems, central network and information systems and telecommunications will move to the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs. In addition, the Information System Authority, the Estonian Information and Communication Technology Centre, the State Infocommunication Foundation and the Estonian Internet Foundation will move from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications to the area of government of the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs.

According to the Bill, the issues of accessibility, land use policy, spatial planning and the land and spatial sector which are currently in the area of government of the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture will be transferred to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The Land and Spatial Planning Board which is being established will also move from the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture to the area of government of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

According to the Bill, the Ministry of the Interior will be tasked with planning and coordinating civil protection. The Ministry of the Interior is already spearheading the development of civil protection, and the Rescue Board is performing the functions of a civil protection authority, but so far there is no legal provision for a lead authority for civil protection. According to the amendment, the Ministry of the Interior will not lead the civil protection activities of other ministries or their sectoral developments but will coordinate the overall civil protection policy.

In addition, the Bill will amend the requirements for the office of State Secretary and will abolish the requirement of higher education in law that has been in place since 1995. According to the Bill, the State Secretary is a senior manager whose role requires extensive knowledge and experience not only in the field of law but also in the field of administration, management, and politics. The State Secretary can rely on the legal experts of the Government Office in the performance of his or her legal tasks.

During the debate, Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart (Centre Party) and Helir-Valdor Seeder (Isamaa) took the floor.

The Estonian Centre Party Group and Isamaa Parliamentary Group moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. The motion was not supported. 16 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of it and 43 were against. The first reading of the Bill was concluded.

During the open microphone, Kalle Grünthal and Züleyxa Izmailova took the floor.

The sitting ended at 7.54 p.m.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.

Riigikogu Press Service
Gunnar Paal 
+372 631 6351, +372 5190 2837
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]