On the motion of the Constitutional Committee as the leading committee, the first reading of the Bill on Ratification of the Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (442 SE), initiated by the Government, was concluded. The purpose of the Act is to ratify the additional Protocol which provides the obligations of the Parties to ensure independence of the activities of supervisory authorities (i.e. the Data Protection Inspectorate) and to establish the requirements for transborder flows of personal data to a recipient which is not subject to the jurisdiction of a Party to the Convention. Ratification of the additional Protocol will involve no need to amend domestic law for Estonia, the requirements arising from the additional Protocol having already been ensured by domestic law. Ratification of the additional Protocol is a step by which the state expresses its willingness to commit to the abovementioned obligations also through international law. The Bill was sent to the second reading.

On the motion of the Constitutional Committee as the leading committee, the first reading of the Emergency Bill (477 SE), initiated by the Government, was concluded. The Emergency Act is a framework Act which deals with crises more generally, organises the legal bases for the crisis management system and introduces amendments to the organisation of the performance of crisis management duties both at the functional and territorial level. As a significant added value, the Bill regulates the consistent functioning of vital services much more thoroughly than the Act which is currently in force, as well as the use of the Defence Forces for ensuring internal security in the situations where no emergency situation has been declared. The Bill was sent to the second reading.
 
On the motion of the Constitutional Committee as the leading committee, the first reading of the Bill on Amendments to the State of Emergency Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure (448 SE), initiated by the Government, was concluded. The purpose of the amendments is to update the regulation of the State of Emergency Act. Among other things, the Bill regulates the situations related to mass disorders and specifies the definition of a threat to constitutional order and the bases for declaring a state of emergency. For the purposes of this Bill, a violent mass disorder means commission of violent unlawful acts by a crowd, that is, causing of proprietary damage or activities posing a threat to life or health. According to the Bill, in event of mass disorders, the Government may decide on the use of the Defence Forces or the National Defence League until termination of the state of emergency. The Bill was sent to the second reading.
 
On the motion of the Cultural Committee as the leading committee, the first reading of the Bill on Amendments to § 15 of the Pre-school Child Care Institutions Act (444 SE), initiated by the Estonian Green Party Faction, was concluded. The purpose of the draft is to regulate the requirements for the admission of children to kindergartens. According to the Bill, children may also be admitted to vacant places in a kindergarten (after the admission of the children residing in the service area) outside the service area, with preference given firstly to the children of the employees of the child care institution in question, secondly, to children residing in the same rural municipality or city, and then to the children of the parents working in the service area. The initiator of the Bill finds that if employees of a child care institution have to be at work as early as at 7 a.m., then they do not have the time to take their children to the kindergarten somewhere else. However, if the employees of a child care institution can enrol their children to the same kindergarten, then they do not have to look for another workplace. At the same time, in the opinion of the initiator, this principle gives the employees of kindergartens more freedom so that they can change workplace if necessary. It also enables kindergartens to choose better employees for themselves. The Bill was sent to the second reading.
 
 
The Riigikogu Press Service
 
 
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