The Riigikogu passed with 76 votes in favour the Act on Amendments to the Public Transport Act and Associated Acts (364 SE), initiated by the Government. The purpose of the Act is more efficient organisation of national public transport and more effective supervision of the funds allocated from the state budget. In this connection, the scope of the national tasks performed by the Estonian Motor Vehicle Registration Centre is extended, the function of performing state supervision is transfered to the Estonian Motor Vehicle Registration Centre and the Estonian Motor Vehicle Registration Centre is transformed from state authority into a governmental authority. Also, a structural unit is established at the Estonian Motor Vehicle Registration Centre which will participate in the preparation of legislation and strategies concerning public transport and will organise the daily provision of domestic public transport service (the optimisation, coordination, procurement, financing and supervision of the service) in cooperation with competent authorities. In the beginning, the structural unit of the Estonian Motor Vehicle Registration Centre which is established is going to be mainly involved in issues concerning bus transport. This Act enters into force on the following day after its publication in the Riigi Teataja. Nobody voted against the Act and nobody abstained.

 

The Act on Amendments to the Courts Act (326 SE), initiated by the Government, was passed with 85 votes in favour. The purpose of the amendment is to bring the name of the mandatory level of proficiency in Estonian used in the Courts Act into conformity with the names of the levels established on the basis of the Council of Europe Framework Document levels of language proficiency. Nobody voted against the Act and nobody abstained.

 

The Act on Amendments to the Language Act and Other Acts arising from Implementation of Levels of Language Proficiency Defined in Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (325 SE), initiated by the Government, was passed with 86 votes in favour. The purpose of the amendment is to bring the name of the mandatory level of proficiency in Estonian used in Acts into conformity with the names of the levels established on the basis of the Council of Europe Framework Document levels of language proficiency. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Recommendation in 2001 which includes, among other things, a proposal to European states to take the Common European Framework of Reference as the basis for developing their language policies, learning and teaching foreign languages and measuring language proficiency so as to ensure coherent and transparent principles in the assessment of foreign language proficiency. Thus, language proficiency certified by the basic level certificate is deemed to correspond to level B1 proficiency of the CE Framework Document, language proficiency certified by the intermediate level certificate, to level B2 proficiency, and language proficiency certified by the advanced level certificate, to level C1 proficiency. Nobody voted against the Act and nobody abstained.

A fifth item “Of the possibility of being and Christmas in the universe and in the Riigikogu” was additionally included in the agenda of the sitting of the plenary assembly.Within the framework of the item, the President of the Riigikogu Ene Ergma gave an address to Father Christmas and Father Christmas also spoke as a guest.

See the verbatim record (in Estonian):

 

 

The Riigikogu Press Service