The Riigikogu heard the Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs’ overview of Estonia’s criminal policy and legislative drafting

At today's sitting, the Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa Pakosta made the traditional annual report on the fundamentals of Estonia’s criminal policy and legislative drafting.

The Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs began her report by providing some figures from the last year. “If we look at the big picture, unfortunately, on the negative side we can see that the number of recorded crimes also increased last year compared to the year before. This growth spurt has, indeed, somewhat slowed down. While the last time when I was here, at the rostrum, I had to talk about a seven percent increase, now the increase is three percent,” said Liisa Pakosta.

The Minister pointed out that the most frequently recorded type of crime is theft (over 10,000 thefts), followed by physical abuse and drunk driving. The number of road traffic crimes and thefts has increased.

Pakosta also expressed concern that the number of fraud offences has increased: “The 14 percent increase in fraud offences last year compared to the year before shows that we need to think much more about prevention, with at least 16 million euros that were essentially stolen from people by means of fraud,” Pakosta pointed out.

“However, I would like to highlight a major problem that the social sphere and our sphere of crime prevention have in common. You might have noticed that the Estonian Institute of Health Development has recently published a new study on nicotine use amongst young people. Unfortunately, we are the leading country in the world in terms of the growth of nicotine consumption amongst young people. In fact, one in three schoolgirls has at least tried vaping during the last 12 months. And when I talk to prosecutors, they view it as a major concern that while the Tobacco Act prohibits the sale of tobacco products by mail to Estonia or the sale of tobacco products by means of postal parcels, it is not sanctioned in any way in Estonia,” said Pakosta.

The Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs concluded her report on criminal policy by discussing corruption. She pointed out that while Estonia has moved up in the corruption index compared to other countries, the society does not perceive this. “At the same time, very many people in Estonia perceive that the Estonian state is not functioning in a fair way; these people feel that officials and politicians are also not open enough about which lobbyists they meet with. More than 70% of Estonians consider it to be a problem,” said Pakosta. She welcomed the fact that the Anti-corruption Act was in the process of being updated in the Riigikogu.

During the debate, Jaanus Karilaid took the floor on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group, Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart on behalf of the Centre Party Group and Anti Poolamets on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group.

The Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs also gave the Riigikogu an overview of the legislative drafting policy. Her report mostly focused on the question of whether the current legislative drafting was in line with the spirit of the Constitution.

Pakosta pointed out that attorney-at-law Hannes Vallikivi had given an expert opinion on today’s overview and had proposed in his analysis to change the structure of explanatory memorandum to the bills so that the constitutional review would be clearly presented as a separate chapter. “In this case, it would be quicker and easier to provide an unambiguous assessment of whether the constitutional review exists in reality or not. And I think this is a very good suggestion from Hannes Vallikivi. We will definitely initiate such an amendment in order to make the monitoring easier,” said Pakosta.

The Minister pointed out that the legislative drafting should not simultaneously increase the administrative burden: “A better constitutional review along with the requirement that in cases where the administrative burden is increased, a bill must also be included that reduces the administrative burden, whether for companies, the public sector itself, or for private individuals, which would rather make this ship sail towards systematically and without hesitation reducing the existing administrative burdens rather than adding new ones.”

During the debate, Jaanus Karilaid took the floor on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group and Varro Vooglaid on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.

Riigikogu Press Service
Maiki Vaikla
+372 631 6456, +372 5666 9508
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]