Riigikogu debate focused on developing civil protection
The Riigikogu debated “The Rescue Board’s civil protection plan – problems, solutions and people” as a matter of significant national importance at the initiative of the Legal Affairs Committee.
The Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee Heljo Pikhof said in her speech that civil protection in a military context is based on threat awareness, need to take shelter, and cooperation between the Defence Forces, allies, and rescue services.
Pikhof pointed out that nothing had been done in Estonia regarding the maintenance and development of the shelter system for the last 30 years and that this has been a huge mistake. “The war in Ukraine shows that residential buildings are not hit by random bombs going off course but that terrorising and killing people has become a military objective in itself for Russia. We have to give credit to our Northern neighbours for their perceptiveness and not letting their guard down during the years of peace. Finland has maintained and developed their shelter system and the infrastructure that can be used for sheltering in case of need. Underground gyms, the metro – all this can be used in an emergency. People can take shelter there from bombs, as has also been done in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Our future investment decisions should probably involve making sure that the constructions could be used to protect our own people,” Pikhof said.
To ensure the coping of the population during crises, we need to establish a threat alert system that covers the whole dense population area of Estonia and includes alternative solutions; plan and ensure preparedness for a broad evacuation in case of need; support the renovation of shelters; clearly mark the shelters in larger cities; increase urban search and rescue, mine clearing, and first aid capabilities of the Rescue Board; enhance the consistency of the rescue network in crisis situations and its capacity to accept international aid; empower local governments in coping with crises, and increase public awareness and readiness.
At the legislation level, the Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee sees a need to solve the challenges linked to sheltering and evacuation, while the Riigikogu should initiate a discussion on building permanent and temporary shelters. Other issues that need to be clarified include the division of tasks between agencies and local governments in organising civil protection, threat alerts, and risk and crisis communications. “It is also crucial to involve volunteers into crisis resolution, and give the volunteers the necessary rights, social guarantees, and of course skills,” Pikhof stated.
The Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets assured in his speech that our defence budget has always been exemplary but that we needed to increase our contributions into civil protection. “The war has taught us a clear lesson about the importance of the readiness of the population, our defence options, defence will, and the ability to cope in crises,” the Minister said.
Läänemets noted that Estonia’s security and resilience needed to be extended and diversified because our aggressive neighbour was not attacking only military targets, and similarly – natural disasters could happen any time. This is why evacuation, sheltering, building stockpiles, threat alerts, and other activities that ensure civil protection are crucial for Estonia in the near future. The Minister stressed that civil protection required long-term planning and funding, and that a systematic and sustainable development could only be based on cross-party agreement.
The Minister explained that the plans for using the extraordinary funds allocated for civil protection in March included creating a threat alert system, installing 80 sirens in 16 larger towns, organising exercises and training to the population and local governments, clearly marking shelters in large cities, building basic stockpiles for extensive evacuation, supporting the crisis preparedness of local governments, and increasing the consistent functioning and stocks of Rescue Board commandos. “We are also developing guidelines for adapting private property, such as basements, into suitable collections points for people. There is also a plan to allocate a total of six million euros next year for involving national security volunteers into comprehensive national defence as well as supporting communities and non-governmental organisations,” Läänemets explained.
The Minister of the Interior suggested ensuring steady and long-term annual investments into civil protection to the extent of at least 0.5 percent of the GDP, i.e. nearly EUR 140 million. “Next to the nearly one billion euros in the military defence budget, this would be an elementary investment to ensure that the security, readiness, and coping of the Estonian population would be guaranteed in the times of crisis,” Läänements stressed.
Director General of the Rescue Board Kuno Tammearu defined the objective for shaping civil protection as making sure that the Estonian residents survived any crisis. “Civil protection is a crucial extension of military national defence, and their combined impact is what shapes the comprehensive national defence. It’s a synergy that is generated and that grows out of common problems, goals, solutions, and actions. The experience of the war in Ukraine shows us the importance of providing equal protection for the population and for those who aid them.”
“By promoting people’s readiness, we will also do better as a country in civil crises, such as natural disasters or manmade accidents. Finland serves as an excellent role model for us. But compared to their diligence in handling civil protection over decades, and considering the current security situation, we really need to rush. This is why we must be smart, wise, and as resource efficient as possible when building up our civil protection,” he said.
Everyone should be asking what they could do to prepare for crises as individuals, communities, businesses, or local governments. “Each one of us needs to imagine coping without electricity, water, sewage, internet, or communications, and know where we could seek shelter,” he emphasised. Tammearu added that the Rescue Board studies have shown that 15 % of Estonia’s population was prepared for crises, but this number should be 70 %, with local governments and the state supporting the other 30 % who are not capable of ensuring their preparedness themselves due to their age of social situation. For this purpose, we need to improve people’s awareness and change their behaviour much more actively by means of training programmes, campaigns, and information materials.
Tammearu said that the EUR 46 million that has been allocated for enhancing civil protection will be used by the Rescue Board to build the foundation for civil protection and carry out the key solutions for population security. “The first important point is alerting people of a threat. The people under threat receive a text, or are alerted via radio or television, but also by a siren,” he said. “Together with local governments we will be establishing a network of sirens in 22 Estonian towns. By the end of this year, we will have completed a location based threat alarm system. We are also developing the Women’s Home Defence app Ole valmis! which give people information, advice, and assistance in preparing for and navigating various situations. The relevant brochure has been distributed to people’s mailboxes with guidelines to follow in situations where the primary services no longer function.”
The head of the Rescue Board also gave an overview of designing sheltering and evacuation facilities. He added that a national evacuation exercise would be carried out next year. Tammearu also emphasised that strategic objectives and permanent funding must be set up for civil protection.
The Head of the Internal Security Institute of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences Erkki Koort admitted that our environment is rife with unpredictability and processes we cannot control, and there is no resolution to the situation on the horizon. “We are living in a perfect storm – the pandemic, Russia’s military attack against Ukraine, migration, economic and energy instability, which has been peppered recently with attacks against objects of infrastructure. Because this is out of our control and we cannot influence the sources of processes, we need to focus on preventing or alleviating any negative consequences,” he said.
Koort added that the field of internal security has never been systematically developed or funded with military crises in mind. “Internal security has always prepared for national defence during the next budgetary period,” he said. “Estonia has talked a lot about the change in security situation and has reproached other countries for ignoring security threats. In actual fact, we only just starting to address several issues in Estonia as well, such as cooling water for Narva power plants, or medium-range air defence,” Koort admitted. He stressed that we always need to learn the lessons of past crises but avoid the trap of preparing for the war that has already passed.
Koort emphasised that a country must deal with its civil protection itself and not wait for help from other countries. Here, an individual themselves have a role to play in addition to the local government and the Riigikogu. “Personal stockpiles can be very successfully built up in six months. We can help our family members, friends, and acquaintances as well. Next time you are picking a present for someone, choose something that would really help them to cope, like a generator or a crisis package, instead of cheap and useless Chinese stuff,” Koort suggested.
He emphasised that we also needed to make sure the local governments knew how they would build up the crisis stockpiles for their residents, or that the Riigikogu asked during legislative proceedings whether the provisions of a draft act would help in coping with the crisis.
The presenters suggested reading the code of conduct for crisis situations on the web page olevalmis.ee, and downloading the Ole valmis! app.
During the debate, Leo Kunnas (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Toomas Jürgenstein (Social Democratic Party), Mati Raidma (Reform Party), Marek Jürgenson (Centre Party), and Heiki Hepner (Isamaa) took the floor on behalf of their factions. Tarmo Kruusimäe (Isamaa), Anti Poolamets (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Marko Šorin (Centre Party), and Hele Everaus (Reform Party) also took the floor.
Photos of the sitting (author: Erik Peinar, Chancellery of the Riigikogu)
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
The video recording of the sitting will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
(Please note that the recording will be uploaded with a delay.)
Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
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