Bill on Amendments to the Citizenship Act (165 SE), initiated by the Centre Party Faction, was at the first reading today. The initiators cite the main objective of the Bill as simplification of the process of granting Estonian citizenship to children born in Estonia to at least one parent who has previously been qualified as stateless, under the condition that their parents have lived in Estonia on the basis of long-term residence permits. The Bill should also eliminate the situation where, as of 1 April 1995, a person who has been groundlessly granted Estonian citizenship, without them having presented false information or falsified documents, cannot be considered an Estonian citizen. The initiators also wished to add a provision on exempting citizenship applicants of over 65 years of age from the Estonian language exam. On the proposal of the Constitutional Committee, the Bill was rejected at the first reading. 49 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the Bill and 34 against it, which means that the Bill was withdrawn from legislative proceeding.

For more details, read the verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian):

The Riigikogu Press Service