At today’s sitting, the Riigikogu approved three Acts and appointed Ester Karuse and Rene Kokk members of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia.

The purpose of the Act on Amendments to the Information Society Services Act, the Copyright Act and the Taxation Act (390 SE), initiated by the Government,  is to ensure implementation of the European Union Digital Services Act Regulation and to better counter the spread of illegal content online, to protect the freedom of speech and of information of users of digital services and to harmonise the requirements applicable to digital services in the European Union’s internal market.

The Digital Services Act Regulation imposes strict obligations on very large online platforms and search engines with over 45 million users in the European Union. Every year, platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Amazon and Booking.com must assess the risks of their services in terms of dissemination of illegal content, fundamental rights, the protection of public health, and public security, and put in place measures to mitigate risks.

The Regulation will make the activities of online platforms more transparent when it comes to content moderation and making related decisions. For example, users will have the right to be informed when their published content is removed or access to it is disabled. At the same time, online platforms must indicate in a comprehensible way in their terms and conditions on what bases and how they moderate content. The information obtained will allow users to contest such decisions and to protect their rights.

In Estonia, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority will exercise supervision over intermediary service providers in order to ensure the rights of users and the transparency of digital services. The Authority will be able to participate in cross-border joint procedures and in the exercise of supervision over very large service providers to protect Estonian users. Among other things, the Authority will be able to assess whether the measures taken by very large service providers are sufficient to mitigate the potential risks the services offered by them present to public security in Estonia.

61 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act and three voted against. There were two abstentions.

The Act on Amendments to the Health Services Organisation Act and Other Acts (401 SE), initiated by the Government, allows family physicians to also service people who are not on their practice list and makes the division of work in primary health care more flexible.

Under the Act, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund will have the possibility to assign people who are on a list that no longer has a family physician to another list that is not full and that has a service area corresponding to their place of residence. In addition, in the interests of legal clarity, family medical care is introduced into the Act as a new definition instead of general medical care and the definition of health centre is employed which will give family medical centres an opportunity to carry greater regional responsibility. At the same time, the Act creates the possibility to authorise the marketing of a medicine without a marketing authorisation in the case of a definite diagnosis in order to ensure uninterrupted availability in Estonia of a medicine significant in terms of human or animal health.

The Act introduces a state fee of 5,000 euro for reviewing a notification of a new tobacco product and state fees for amending, publishing and storing a notification of a tobacco product. Fees are also established for notifications of sales volumes and for the assessment of substances contained in and emitted from e-liquids.

Under the Act, dentists, in the same way as doctors, will be able to participate in the provision of specialised medical care, according to their competence and experience, together with a specialised dentist.

During the debate, Tanel Kiik took the floor on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Liisa Pakosta on behalf of Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group.

65 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act and one voted against. There were two abstentions.

The Riigikogu passed the Act on Amendments to the Income Tax Act (416 SE), initiated by the Government. According to it, in the future the tax allowance of people who reach old-age pension age will not rise in line with the average old-age pension, but it can be raised by a separate decision as is the case with the general tax allowance. The aim is to increase tax revenue and to make the calculation of tax allowance more flexible.

According to the Act, from 2025, the tax allowance for people of pension age will be 9,312 euro per year, or 776 euro per month. The explanatory memorandum points out that the tax allowance for old-age pensioners will still remain higher than the general tax allowance which will be 700 euro per month next year.

The amendment will particularly affect pensioners who receive an average or higher pension in Estonia. As of 1 April this year, around 149,400 people, or 48 per cent of all pensioners, receive at least an average pension.

During the debate Andrei Korobeinik took the floor on behalf of the Estonian Centre Party Group, Arvo Aller on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, Helir-Valdor Seeder on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group and Õnne Pillak on behalf of the Estonian Reform Party Group.

47 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act and 22 voted against.

The Riigikogu approved the Resolution of the Riigikogu “Appointment of a Member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia Who Is a Member of the Riigikogu” (446 OE), submitted by the Finance Committee. Member of the Riigikogu Ester Karuse was appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia.

The amendment was due to the fact that the member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia Anti Allas, nominated by the Social Democratic Party Group, had announced his resignation on 26 February. On the proposal of the parliamentary group, the Riigikogu appointed Karuse a new member of the Supervisory Board to replace Allas.

52 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution.

With the Resolution of the Riigikogu “Appointment of a Member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia Who Is a Member of the Riigikogu” (445 OE), submitted by the Finance Committee, Member of the Riigikogu Rene Kokk was appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia.

The amendment was due to the fact that the former member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia Jaak Valge had announced his resignation from office on 5 February. On the proposal of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, the Riigikogu appointed Kokk a new member of the Supervisory Board to replace Valge.

The Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia is the oversight body of the Bank of Estonia which consists of a Chairman, representatives of the parliamentary groups of the Riigikogu and specialists in the field. The Supervisory Board is formed based on the principle that each parliamentary group nominates one of its members and the Chairman of the Board nominates four specialists.

55 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Resolution.

A Bill passed the first reading

The Bill on Amendments to the Emergency Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (426 SE), initiated by the Government, will expand the range of essential services and critical entities  and help improve the readiness of service providers and the whole country to address crises.

The Bill will transpose into Estonian law the European Union directive aimed at ensuring the resilience of critical entities and the functioning of the country in different kind of crises. A service is deemed to be essential if it has an overriding impact on the functioning of society, the disruption thereof threatens, among other things, human life or health or brings about major environmental damage and it has a significant impact on national economy and national security.

The Bill will add seven services to the list of essential services: the operation of airports, air navigation services, public railways and ports, the supply of food and medicines, and the operation of family medical care. While the Ministry of Social Affairs currently organises the ensurance of emergency care, in the future it will be necessary to ensure the wider functioning of health services as an essential service. As a result of the amendments, for example airport, railway and port operators, as well as family physicians, wholesalers of medicinal products and larger food handlers will become critical entities.

While water and district heating companies and road maintenance companies providing a service in a municipality with a population of at least 10,000 are currently deemed to be critical entities, in the future all such companies regardless of the number of inhabitants in the municipality will become critical entities. The Bill will increase the number of essential services from 14 to 21 and the number of companies providing services from 107 to 422. The number of authorities organising essential services will rise from 36 to 83 and they will include all local governments in order to ensure water supply, sewerage, district heating, and road maintenance.

Critical entities will be required to prepare a business continuity risk assessment and plan, to organise exercises, and to meet other requirements set to ensure resilience, including to identify the posts fulfilling the most critical functions and to carry out background checks on the people performing them, if necessary. According to the Bill, service providers will also have to be ready to undergo an independent audit to assess the resilience of the service.

The Bill will also lay the foundations for setting strategic objectives and for planning measures across critical services nationally. Under the leadership of the Government Office, a nationwide risk analysis and a strategy for the resilience of critical entities will be drawn up in the future, in order to better target and plan the resilience of service providers. As part of the strategy, all municipalities will be required to draw up their own risk analyses and to assess risks, vulnerability, and preparedness for the materialisation of risks.

Raimond Kaljulaid took the floor on behalf of the Social Democratic Party Group in the debate.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

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

Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
+372 631 6592, +372 510 6179
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]