The Riigikogu gave the European Commission a state guarantee for financial assistance to Ukraine
At today’s sitting, the Riigikogu passed eight legal acts. Among them, it gave the European Commission a 7.4-million-euro worth of state guarantee for providing extraordinary macrofinancial assistance to Ukraine, passed an Act enabling state supervision in respect of the sellers and service providers operating on platforms, and supported extensive transformation of the area of victim support.
The Riigikogu passed with 77 votes in favour the Victim Support Act (702 SE), initiated by the Government. Its aim is to improve the availability and quality of the victim support services provided to victims of violence, crime, and cases of crisis, and to make the system for the application for compensations to victims of crime more user-friendly. The Act extensively transforms the area of victim support, and the Victim Support Act passed in 2003 is repealed.
The amendments provide for services that have not been legally regulated so far, such as psychosocial assistance in cases of crisis, crisis assistance in the case of sexual violence, the restorative justice services and supporting the work of perpetrators to stop violent behaviour. The provisions concerning the service for victims of human trafficking and the women’s support centre service are also specified. Emphasis is put on the requirements for education and in-service training of victim support providers with the aim of ensuring that specialists who have received the relevant training work with victims who are in a vulnerable situation.
The Act establishes the bases for data exchange in the case of victims who need special treatment and protection, high-risk domestic violence victims as well as other victims, including minors. The aim is to relieve victims in the most difficult situations of the obligation to actively engage in seeking assistance themselves. The amendments are also intended to ensure mental health help supporting recovery from trauma to victims of sexual violence and domestic violence and their children where no proceedings in respect of the incident have been commenced but the need for help remains in place.
The Act makes the compensation paid to victims of crimes of violence more available, and the application for the compensation more user-friendly. Compared with the current Act, in the future, state benefits, such as the funeral benefit paid by local governments, survivor’s pension and work ability allowance, will not be deducted from the compensation, and working-age victims will not need to complete assessments of their work ability in the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund. In certain cases, there will be no need to submit expense receipts.
The Riigikogu passed with 79 votes in favour the Act on Amendments to the Patents Act and Other Acts (658 SE), initiated by the Government. It specifies the issues of the right of representation at the Patent Office and at the Industrial Property Board of Appeal and simplifies the proving of the right of representation of patent attorneys.
According to the amendments, patent attorneys will no longer be required to present an authorisation document when communicating with the Estonian Patent Office in the area of inventions. The Act specifies the scope of the right of representation of applicants for a patent and the joint representative appointed from among the rights holders. In connection with the amendments in representation and the transition to electronic procedures, the procedure for sending the notices of the Estonian Patent Office is also specified. The procedure for paying the state fee also changes.
The Riigikogu passed with 73 votes in favour the Act on Amendments to the Funded Pensions Act and the Securities Register Maintenance Act (711 SE), initiated by the Government. It will enable members of pension schemes to also make contributions to the second pillar pension scheme in the rate of four or six per cent, instead of the current two per cent, in order to increase their pension savings. The current two-per cent contribution rate will remain in place by default.
It will be possible to change the payment rate twice a year. In such a case, the new rate will be implemented from 1 January and an application will have to be submitted to the registrar of the pension register or the account administrator by 30 November at the latest. The amendments will enter into force from 2024 and it will be possible to begin to make greater contributions from 1 January 2025 at the earliest.
Aivar Sõerd from the Reform Party Faction took the floor during the debate.
The Riigikogu passed with 58 votes in favour the Act on Amendments to the Security Authorities Act and the Estonian Defence Forces Organisation Act (721 SE), initiated by the Government. It gives the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service and the Estonian Internal Security Service rights to protect their territory and staff in order to enable to adequately respond to threats until the arrival of the police.
Security authorities are given the right to use law enforcement measures such as questioning, identification of identity and detention of person in the protection of their territory and staff. For this, security authorities are given the right to use physical force, special equipment as well as a weapon. Direct coercion may be used only with regard to people who are on the territory of the security authority or in the immediate vicinity thereof and whose activity poses a threat to the staff. A manner of responding that would harm the person posing the threat as little as possible will have to be chosen.
Another major amendment extends the right of the Defence Forces to organise armed resistance. It is part of military national defence where the efficiency of the organisation of armed resistance depends on peace-time preparations. The Act also makes other amendments, for example, provisions concerning the regulation of data protection are updated.
During the debate, Leo Kunnas from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction and Raimond Kaljulaid from the Social Democratic Party Faction took the floor.
The Riigikogu passed with 73 votes in favour the Act on Amendments to § 17 of the Acquisition of Immovables in Public Interest Act (729 SE), initiated by the Economic Affairs Committee. It gives owners whose immovable is to be transferred in the public interest the possibility to also receive compensation, within the limits prescribed by the law, for the preparation of a comparative valuation report commissioned by them, in addition to the procedural costs related to the transfer.
In October, the Riigikogu decided to support the proposal of the Chancellor of Justice to bring the Acquisition of Immovables in Public Interest Act into conformity with the Constitution as the Act did not prescribe compensation of additional valuation costs to the owner where the owner wished to negotiate with the state or a local government the price of land, a forest or a building to be acquired in the public interest.
During the debate, Priit Sibul from Faction Isamaa and Jüri Jaanson from the Reform Party Faction took the floor.
The Riigikogu passed with 69 votes in favour the Act on Amendments to the Tax Information Exchange Act and the Taxation Act (transposition of the administrative cooperation directive) (732 SE), initiated by the Government. It specifies the reporting rules related to the taxation of platform operators in order to enable state supervision in respect of the sellers and service providers operating on platforms, including monitoring of their tax compliance.
According to the amendments, from the new year, platform operators like AirBnB, Amazon, Bolt, Uber, Etsy and Booking.com will have to start submitting to the Tax and Customs Board information on the sellers and service providers who are individuals and legal persons operating on their platforms and the income they earn. Currently, data exchange with platforms is taking place on a voluntary basis.
In the future, platform operators will have to provide information on the local taxable persons and taxable persons of EU Member States operating on their platforms as well as on the taxable persons of the countries with whom Estonia has entered into agreements for automatic exchange of information in tax matters. Tax authorities will use automatic exchange of information to exchange the information obtained on non-residents.
Where a seller refuses to share to a platform operator the data necessary to meet its reporting requirements, the platform operator will have the right, in the event of reminders being ignored, to close the account of the seller and to prevent them from registering on the platform in the future as well as the right to withhold the transfer of the consideration to the seller. The Tax and Customs Board will be able to have a warning published on the website of the platform of the non-compliant platform operator for failure to submit data. As a last resort, it will be possible to block the use of the platform but only in the case that all other more proportional measures and remedies have been exhausted.
Aivar Kokk from Faction Isamaa took the floor during the debate.
The Riigikogu passed the Resolution of the Riigikogu “The Granting of a State Guarantee to the European Commission for Financial Assistance to Ukraine” (750 OE), initiated by the Government. It prescribes the granting of a state guarantee to the European Commission in an amount of 7,402,387 euro. After the approval of the Resolution, a guarantee agreement will be entered into between the European Commission and Estonia.
On 20 September, the Council of the European Union approved the decision to provide an amount of EUR 5 billion of macro-financial assistance in loans to Ukraine. The opportunities of the common provisioning fund of the EU budget and guarantees by Member States will be used to manage loan risks. The guarantees by Member States will also cover the loss risk of the one-billion loan of the financial assistance package to Ukraine agreed on earlier, that is, on 12 July this year. EU Member States grant guarantees according to the relative share of the State in the total gross national income of the EU.
The implementation of the Resolution will involve no direct immediate obligations for Estonia. Obligations will arise if the guarantee is called on and Estonia has to pay the European Commission the amounts requested under a guarantee demand.
During the debate, Paul Puustusmaa from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction and Jürgen Ligi from the Reform Party Faction took the floor.
55 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution and 14 were against it.
The Riigikogu also passed the Act on the Accession to the Agreement establishing the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) (715 SE), initiated by the Government. 56 members of the Riigikogu voted for it.
According to the Act, Estonia accedes to the Agreement establishing the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. In 2021, Estonia submitted an application for full membership to the EMBL Council and the EMBL Council approved Estonia’s accession in the same year. The Agreement will come into force for Estonia on the date of deposit of its instrument of accession.
The EMBL is one of the world’s leading international organisations in molecular biology, which promotes cooperation among European countries in the relevant basic research, develops molecular biology knowledge in education, medicine, agriculture, natural environment and other fields and ensures access to the relevant top-level research instrumentation. EMBL is one of the large European international research infrastructures and centres.
Full membership in EMBL will open up new cooperation opportunities to Estonian small and medium-sized enterprises. It will also enable to create direct contacts with the world’s leading large enterprises, like medicine companies, that are part of the EMBL network.
One Bill passed the second reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Military Service Act and Other Acts (623 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the second reading in the Riigikogu. It will reform how the state of health of persons liable to the national defence obligation and persons applying for the national defence obligation is assessed in medical commissions.
The Bill will terminate the activities of medical commissions as administrative bodies. Instead of the current three-member commission, the right to assess the state of health will be given to doctors appointed by the Defence Resources Agency and the Defence Forces. In order to assess if a person’s state of health complies with the health requirements, the Bill will give doctors default access to the data in the health information system, but people will retain the possibility to prohibit access if they wish. The Bill will also provide for more specific supervision of the use of the insignia and uniform of a serviceman outside military service and will establish a reserve service for the alternative service.
Before the second reading, the National Defence Committee had decided to incorporate an amendment into the Bill that would enable people who interrupt their conscript service for health, family or other reasons to continue their conscript service later if they wish. The amendment also concerns female conscripts who become pregnant and must therefore interrupt their conscript service and who currently have no possibility to return to conscript service.
According to the amendments, people whose conscript service has been interrupted will be able to submit an application to continue their conscript service to the Defence Resources Agency once until they attain 27 years of age. In the event of the continuation of conscript service, the training of the conscript will continue from the stage of training at which their earlier training was interrupted. The duration of conscript service must not exceed 11 months in total inclusive of the conscript service completed and the continued conscript service.
Six Bills passed the first reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Building Code, An Act to Implement the Building Code and the Planning Act and the State Assets Act (746 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading in the Riigikogu. It will establish a regulation to remove from the public space the civil engineering works that are not appropriate there, in particular Soviet monuments. So far, the general law enforcement and penal provisions have had to be taken as guidance when relocating monuments bearing prohibited symbols. The relevant provisions will now also be provided for in construction sector rules.
The Bill will amend the Building Code and will specify that the publicly visible parts of buildings, as well as publicly exhibited monuments, sculptures, statues, and other civil engineering works must not incite hatred, or support or justify an occupation regime or the commission of an act of aggression, genocide, a crime against humanity or a war crime. The Bill also provides for the powers of the state to remove non-compliant civil engineering works. Civil engineering works will have to be brought into conformity with the new requirements within three months after the entry into force of the Act.
Local governments generally exercise state supervision over the requirements of the Building Code. In connection with a new requirement to be established, the Ministry of Justice will be given the authority to exercise administrative supervision over local governments. For the resolution of disputes, a government committee will be formed who will be able to provide assessments on the conformity of civil engineering works. The Bill prescribes that the committee will definitely have to include a representative of the National Heritage Board. In the case of construction works that are memorials or that are located in heritage conservation areas, the Heritage Conservation Act will also be taken into account, and the National Heritage Board will also have to be involved in the exercise of supervision who will provide an opinion as to whether it will be necessary to apply for authorisation to perform the works.
During the debate, Toomas Jürgenstein from the Social Democratic Party Faction, Paul Puustusmaa from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction, Tarmo Kruusimäe from Faction Isamaa and Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart from the Centre Party Faction took the floor.
The Centre Party Faction moved to reject the Bill at the first reading, but the plenary did not support the motion. 18 members of the Riigikogu voted for the rejection, but 66 were against it.
The Bill on Amendments to the Foreign Relations Act (714 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It prescribes for an opportunity for the Government or a minister authorised by the Government to authorise, under a contract under public law, a state foundation or a foundation established with state participation to perform an administrative duty in order to use European Union support and foreign aid. Where an administrative duty will be transferred, the bases for financing the performance of the administrative duty and the extent of financing will also be agreed upon in a contract under public law.
The amendment will enable to flexibly choose cooperation partners for the implementation of support programmes who review applications, assess them, make funding decisions, and reclaim money where necessary.
The Labour Market Measures Bill (735 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will establish a new consolidated text of the Labour Market Measures Act in order to update and organise the legal space for providing labour market services.
The Bill will group the labour market services and benefits that have the same aim into labour market measures and a final list will be provided in the Act. The Bill will provide for the general principles for implementing the labour market measures and define the target groups entitled to receive the measures. No practical amendments are planned to the rights or obligations of the target group or to the content or availability of the labour market services and benefits.
In addition, the Bill will merge the current databases – the unemployment insurance database, the register of persons registered as unemployed or job-seekers, and of provision of labour market services, and the database of work ability assessment and work ability allowance – into a single database of the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund. The establishment of a single database will simplify the making of database developments in the future, increase the development speed and presumably allow for a reduction in development costs.
The Bill on Amendments to the Imprisonment Act, the Penal Code and the Probation Supervision Act (747 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. Its aim is to resolve problems that have arisen in practice, to also enable a transition to digital document management in prisons and to broaden prisoners’ opportunities to use technology.
The Bill will enable prisoners to use the Internet more, but this will still involve a limited number of controlled sites. Prisoners in open prison and prisoners on prison leave will also be enabled to use a mobile phone which has been pre-set and which can be used with restrictions. In addition, the Bill will allow for more short-term visits for prisoners, for example via video.
The Bill will also reduce the maximum length of commission to a punishment cell in order to bring the provisions into conformity with international recommendations. A reasonable period of time which cannot be shorter than two twenty-four-hour periods will have to be allowed between two commissions to a punishment cell.
In order to resolve the problems that have arisen in practice, it will be provided that the claims subject to collection will be withheld on account of the money transferred to the account of the person held in custody, and the document on ascertaining a state of intoxication of a probationer will be made directly enforceable in order to reduce unnecessary workload. Currently, separate civil proceedings are needed to certify the existence of such a document.
The Bill on Amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Administrative Court Procedure (723 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will give legal effect to the digital court file in order to facilitate a transition to paper-free court proceedings. Digital court proceedings have been implemented in part in courts since 2017.
Currently, court case files in civil and administrative matters are maintained mostly on paper and in bound form. In all other court matters, courts have the obligation to register all documents in the courts information system, while the Code of Civil Procedure provides for an obligation to maintain paper files. Thus, two files are maintained in parallel, and the paper file has legal effect. The maintenance of two files is however burdensome for courts.
Kert Kingo from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction took the floor during the debate.
The Bill on Amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, the Law of Succession Act and the Population Register Act (implementation of amended European Union Regulations on taking of evidence and service of documents) (731 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading. It will make in Estonian Acts amendments necessary for the application of two EU Regulations. They are new versions of EU Regulations regulating the taking of evidence and service of documents in cross-border civil and commercial matters.
Among other things, it will be provided that circuit courts of appeal and the Supreme Court will also be able to directly use the possibilities provided for in the Regulations, in addition to district courts. Notaries will be able to use the relevant Taking of Evidence Regulation when taking evidence.
In the future, it will also be possible to issue data from the population register to people simply by e-mail and regular mail. Under the current law, this is allowed to be done by e-mail only in encrypted form and by regular mail as a registered item. According to the amendments, the issuer of data will be able to decide for themselves how to issue data in a particular case. For example, where data only on place of residence are issued, sending by e-mail can be used but where special categories of data are issued, data will have to be sent in an encrypted form or as a registered item.
Anti Poolamets from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction took the floor during the debate.
The Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction moved to reject the Bill at the first reading, but the motion was not supported. 16 members of the Riigikogu supported a rejection and 39 were against.
A Resolution was not supported
The Riigikogu did not pass the Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a proposal to the Government of the Republic to develop an energy crisis rescue package“ (716 OE), initiated by the Estonian Centre Party Faction. It was intended to make a proposal to develop a free electricity package for household consumers to the extent of 130 kWh per month until 30 April 2023. The initiators also intended to lower the network charges for electrical energy and natural gas to zero euro for companies until the same time. In addition, it was intended to extend the universal service for electricity to medium-sized enterprises and local government agencies.
During the debate, Jaak Aab from the Centre Party Faction took the floor.
34 members of the Riigikogu voted for the Resolution, but a majority of the votes of the members of the Riigikogu, that is, at least 51 votes, would have been needed for it to be passed.
The sitting ended at 6.31 p.m.
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
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
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Questions: [email protected]
