Today Chancellor of Justice Allar Jõks presented the report on the 445 page overview about reviewing the conformity of the legislation of general application with the Constitution and the Acts, and the respect for fundamental rights and liberties to the Riigikogu.

In his report the Chancellor of Justice acknowledged the adoption of the amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act, the State Secrets Act, the Classified Foreign Information Act and the Public Information Act. Jõks also considered of importance the amendments to penal law and criminal procedure law, as well as amending the Language Act and the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture.

At the same time the Chancellor of Justice drew attention to the fact that the control over the funding of political parties has to be brought up to date. According to the Chancellor of Justice he stressed that need already four years ago because due to weak control mechanisms and inadequate regulations the Political Parties Act fails to meet its purpose. The report stated that no changes have taken place in the practice that the members of the Riigikogu are members of supervisory boards of state companies.

In connection with fundamental social rights Allar Jõks spoke about the inadequacy of preventive activities in the protection of health.

The report also touched the legislative void and weakness of civilian control in the organisation of the Defence Forces, and the shortcomings of the legal basis of the activities of the police. Shortcomings in state supervision were pointed out with the statement that state supervision is not a right of the state but the obligation of the state to act, and the stronger the private interests become and the more intensive the violations of fundamental rights are, the stronger must state supervision be.

Speaking of the European Union law, Jõks warned that moderation and caution usually characteristic of Estonians should not be lost when praising the superiority of the EU law. He considered the lack of possibility to review the conformity of the fundamental agreements of the European Union to the basic principles of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia an important void in today’s legal space.

Members of the Riigikogu asked the Chancellor of Justice many questions, comments were made by Urmas Reinsalu, Evelyn Sepp, Väino Linde, Marek Strandberg, Eiki Nestor and Jaanus Marrandi.

The verbatim record of the Riigikogu sitting (in Estonian) can be found at: https://www.riigikogu.ee/?op=steno 

The Riigikogu Press Service