Auditor General Mihkel Oviir replied to the interpellation concerning the need for the Climate and Energy Agency in the present economic situation (No 454), submitted by Member of the Riigikogu Kadri Simson, Kalle Laanet, Kalev Kallo, Lauri Laasi, Tiit Kuusmik, Inara Luigas, Toivo Tootsen, Nikolai Põdramägi, Lembit Kaljuvee and Toomas Varek on 2 June.

 

The Auditor General said that the National Audit Office has recommended creating the climate and energy agency in several audits. Similar organisations operate in most of the European countries because it is difficult to provide complex solutions to energy issues at the level of the ministry. In Oviir’s words, the climate and energy agency should first of all be a centre of excellence who would look at energy and climate issues as a whole and who would be able to provide policy-developers with high-quality data and recommendations on the basis of which they could make their decisions. The agency should organise the necessary studies and assess the effectiveness of energy subsidies and develop an integrated vision in important energy issues. In Oviir’s opinion, at present, there is no such agency in Estonia who would be able to perform these tasks. “Certainly, the main activity of the agency should not be allocating subsidies. The state has enough such agencies and maintaining another allocator of subsidies would be waste of taxpayers’ money. However, as regards allocation of money, the agency should help create such subsidies and conditions of granting these as would contribute to fulfilment of the energy goals of the state,” stressed the Auditor General. In his words, there is no point hoping that these tasks could be fulfilled by an agency who operates in the status of a department of a state foundation and which has been created and is managed essentially by one political party. “Ministries do not wish to cooperate with a politicised agency and this is not just my statement. This concern was expressed to the National Audit Office by the people engaged with the agency. Obviously we cannot but agree that in any case it is difficult for a clannish agency to develop the action policy in the energy and climate sphere,” noted Oviir.

 

The Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts replied to four interpellations. They were the following:

 

the interpellation concerning problems relating to Tallinn–Kuressaare air route (No 469), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Kalle Laanet, Aivar Riisalu, Olga Sõtnik, Kadri Simson, Kalev Kallo, Mailis Reps and Ain Seppik on 2 August;

 

the interpellation concerning the condition of Kauksi–Vasknarva motorway (No 479), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Valeri Korb, Tiit Kuusmik, Lembit Kaljuvee and Eldar Efendijev on 2 August;

 

the interpellation concerning nationalisation of the transmission system of a gas company (No 481), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Kalev Kallo, Kalle Laanet, Mailis Reps, Toivo Tootsen, Valeri Korb, Enn Eesmaa, Eldar Efendijev, Nelli Privalova, Vladimir Velman, Olga Sõtnik, Nikolai Põdramägi, Rein Ratas, Evelyn Sepp, Marika Tuus and Tiit Kuusmik on 2 August;

 

the interpellation concerning the light traffic road between Sonda and Kiviõli (No 490), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Tiit Kuusmik, Valeri Korb, Lembit Kaljuvee, Arvo Sarapuu, Eldar Efendijev and Evelyn Sepp on 3 August.

 

During the open microphone, Rein Ratas took the floor.

 

The sitting ended at 6.06 p.m.

 

The Riigikogu Press Service