The bill updating the organization of local governments passed the first reading
At today's sitting, the Riigikogu concluded the first reading of a Bill updating the organization of local governments which will increase the freedom of action of local governments and expand the opportunities to involve city and rural municipality residents.
The Bill on Amendments to the Local Government Organisation Act and Associated Acts (688 SE), initiated by the Government, will make the involvement of residents more flexible in order to enhance democracy. In the case of a local public initiative, a draft legislative act will no longer required to be submitted, but residents can submit it in a free form.
Under the Bill, at least 10 per cent of the residents with the right to vote in a municipality will have the possibility to initiate local opinion polls, the eventual conduct of which will be decided by the council. The Bill will also allow for the formation of other regional assemblies in addition to city district and rural municipality district assemblies through which local residents can submit proposals to governments and councils.
The bill will also specify the organization of the work of councils and governments, for example, rural municipality and city secretaries will be relieved of the obligation to manage offices so that they can focus on performing legal tasks. While until now it has been possible to work as a rural municipality or city secretary on the basis of a professional certificate, from 2028, according to the Bill, a higher education in law will be required to be appointed to the relevant position.
The bill will include in the Act an explicit right to hold council and government sessions and meetings electronically, reduce the number of issues requiring a majority vote of the council, and allow councils to impose minimum restrictions on fundamental rights in justified cases, for example in rules on keeping pets, property maintenance, and commercial activities. In addition, the bill will give local governments greater rights to monitor compliance with the rules established by councils.
The bill makes an amendment according to which councils may make the position of the deputy chairperson of a council a salaried position in addition to the position of the chairperson. The grounds for suspending the powers of council members will also be amended, providing for suspension instead of termination of powers upon appointment as an official of a local government administrative agency.
The Bill also provides for the possibility of transferring the performance of a local task assigned to a local government by law or on the basis thereof to another local government under a contract under public law. Currently, this is predominantly done through private legal entities, such as jointly formed non-profit organisations and foundations.
Ando Kiviberg from Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group and Anti Allas from the Social Democratic Party Parliamentary Group took the floor during the debate.
A Bill passed the second reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Building Code and Other Acts (655 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the second reading. According to it, the infrastructure necessary for high-speed Internet connections will have to be provided for in new and thoroughly renovated apartment buildings. This means that developers will have to install sufficiently wide fibre optic cable ducts so that more than one company could install a communications network there and provide services through it.
According to the bill, a development will be added to the register of buildings through which information about infrastructure and planned civil works will be transmitted. The amendment will improve the availability of information for telecommunications operators wishing to expand their networks and will help to avoid unnecessary digging and duplicate infrastructure.
The aim of the amendments is to open up the high-speed internet market to all service providers, increase competition, and offer people better and more affordable internet services. The amendments will also help avoid situations where subsequent infrastructure development becomes complicated or costly.
The bill supports the implementation of the EU Gigabit Infrastructure Act which aims to facilitate the deployment of communications networks across Europe. The Act places emphasis on the sharing of existing infrastructure and the more efficient construction of new infrastructure to accelerate the deployment of high-speed internet and reduce its costs.
Non-attached Member of the Riigikogu Peeter Ernits took the floor during the debate.
Three other Bills passed the first reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Public Holidays and Days of National Importance Act (669 SE), initiated by the Estonian Centre Party Group, passed the first reading in the Riigikogu. It is intended to rename Child Protection Day, celebrated on 1 June, as Children’s Day and make it a public holiday. 36 organizations advocating for children’s rights and welfare made the relevant proposal last spring. With the amendment, the number of public holidays in Estonia would increase to twelve.
Reili Rand from the Social Democratic Party Group, Vadim Belobrovtsev from the Centre Party Group and Riina Solman from Isamaa Parliamentary Group took the floor during the debate.
The Bill on Amendments to the Names Act and the State Fees Act (719 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will allow for applications to change first names and surnames to be submitted via the online environment of the population register and, in certain cases, decisions on changing names and entries concerning changing names to be made automatically.
While a person can currently submit an application to change a name either on site at one of the four vital statistics offices or in a digitally signed form, the bill will replace the latter option with submitting an application in a secure online environment. The compliance of data with the conditions established in the legislation will be checked using databases and if all the prerequisites for changing the name are met a decision will be made and an entry will be made in the population register automatically.
If an automatic decision and entry cannot be made, the application to change the name will be forwarded to an official who will continue the procedure pursuant to the usual procedure. According to the Bill, the official will have to make a discretionary decision where, for example, a person wants a first name that has not been previously accepted in the population register or a surname that has not appeared in their family according to the register data.
Peeter Ernits took the floor on behalf of the Centre Party Group during the debate and Stig Rästa made a speech on behalf of Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group.
In addition, the Bill on Amendments to the Advertising Act and the Personal Data Protection Act (696 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will bring Estonian law into conformity with the European Union’s Political Advertising Transparency Regulation. The first reading of the bill took place at yesterday’s sitting but it was not formally completed due to the end of working hours.
After the plenary sitting, members of the Riigikogu are planning to form the Vaccination Support Group on the initiative of Member of the Riigikogu Tanel Kiik.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
[email protected]
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