The Riigikogu received an overview of the implementation of the Fundamentals of Legislative Drafting Policy
At today’s sitting of the Riigikogu, when giving an overview of the implementation of the Fundamentals of Legislative Drafting Policy in 2021, Minister of Justice Maris Lauri said that the recent years had highlighted the need for legislative drafting to be flexible and future-looking.
“Never before after the restoration of its independence has Estonia as a country had to face such a fast-developing and long-lasting crisis as the virus crisis that has been going on for two years now. Add to this the energy prices that have been soaring since the second half of last year and the ongoing war in Europe that Putin has started. Let us also not forget the green transition, which requires significant changes in a large number of areas and people’s behaviour. All this will have an impact on legislative drafting as well,” Lauri said. “Legislative drafting needs to be flexible enough for the state to be able to effectively respond to the changes taking place in the life of society and the external environment. At the same time, it needs to be predictable and stable enough in order to maintain and increase trust in the activities of the state. Wisdom, consistency and sometimes also stubbornness are needed to balance the two opposing principles.”
According to Lauri, the 109 legislative drafts that had been sent for coordination to the Ministry of Justice last year had showed that most of the drafts were in conformity with the rules of legislative drafting, but 11 per cent of the drafts had significant deficiencies in confirming to the rules. “Thus it can be concluded from this data that there are no major problems with following the rules of legislative drafting, but even 11 per cent is too much and action is definitely needed to reduce this percentage,” the minister underlined.
In Lauri’s opinion, one of the challenges in legislative drafting is the objective that explanatory memorandums should present a more thorough and systemic analysis of the constitutionality of bills, which is an important source of information for the body implementing the act. “The rapid technological development as well the crises are making it increasingly important to adhere to and consider constitutionality,” the minister said. She also spoke of the obligation of legislative intent, which is sometimes regarded as excessive bureaucracy. In Lauri’s words, however, it is good to hold disputes on principles early on. Therefore the Ministry of Justice is looking for solutions how the obligation to draw up a legislative intent would be fulfilled more often and more meaningfully.
When speaking of impact analyses, Lauri said that it was important to ensure that they were more supported with data, the stakeholders were involved in drafting, administrative burden was assessed more thoroughly and post-legislative scrutiny was also planned in the case of amendments with a significant impact. “Indeed, the effectiveness of a regulation is most accurately assessed in retrospect,” she stated. The minister noted that, according to the Fundamentals of Legislative Drafting Policy, a goal had been set that the proportion of post-legislative scrutiny had to increase but she pointed out that it was neither necessary nor relevant for every draft. In Lauri’s words, the fundamentals set out an obligation to plan post-legislative scrutiny in the case where no legislative intent has been drawn up for the Bill due to urgency.
In conclusion the minister said that ensuring the quality of legislative drafting was a complicated task and a precondition for its success was that the issues concerning quality were addressed systematically and consistently. “It is a joint task of all actors in the legislative drafting process and the final result will depend on to what extent everyone adheres to the principles of legislative drafting in the agreed manner. Nothing more or less than the strength of the rule of law will depend on that,” Lauri said.
During the debate, Marek Jürgenson (Centre Party), Anti Poolamets (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Heljo Pikhof (Social Democratic Party), Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa) and Hanno Pevkur (Reform Party) took the floor.
The Riigikogu passed three Acts
The Act on Amendments to the Seafarers Employment Act (472 SE), initiated by the Government, transposes into Estonian law the amendments to the ILO Maritime Labour Convention adopted in 2018. The amendments concern the effect of a seafarer’s employment agreement and the payment of wages to a crew member in a situation where the crew member is held captive as a result of armed robbery or piracy.
The Seafarers Employment Act is amended by adding a provision under which the operator has the obligation to continue to pay wages in a situation where a crew member is held captive as a result of an act of piracy or armed robbery against a ship. In such a situation, the operator will have to continue to pay to the crew member the wages, remuneration and other entitlements, whether arising under the seafarer employment agreement, a collective bargaining agreement or any enactment. The operator’s obligation will continue to have effect until the crew member is repatriated or, where the crew member dies while in captivity, until the death of the crew member. The obligation to pay wages will be applied to the operators whose ships must have a maritime labour certificate under the Maritime Safety Act.
The Act also regulates the effect of a seafarer’s employment agreement in the event of captivity of a crew member. A seafarer’s employment agreement will continue to have effect while a crew member is held captive as a result of an act of piracy or armed robbery against a ship, regardless of whether either party has given notice to suspend or cancel the seafarer’s employment agreement, or the deadline of the seafarer’s fixed term employment contract has passed.
The explanatory memorandum notes that, in Estonia, there are currently nine operators whose ships have a maritime labour certificate. According to the Transport Administration’s knowledge, the ships of Estonian operators have had no cases that could be regarded as piracy or armed robbery in foreign waters. According to the data of the International Maritime Organization, there were 192 incidents of piracy and armed robberies in the world in 2020.
73 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act.
The Act on Amendments to the Fiscal Marking of Liquid Fuel Act and the European Union Common Agricultural Policy Implementation Act (495 SE), initiated by the Government, is intended to reduce misuse of diesel fuel marked with a fiscal marking used in the agriculture and fisheries sector and to increase the receipt of excise duty.
The current Act enables to perform only formal checking before sale and this does not ensure purposeful use of the reduced excise duty. Before sale, the buyer is required to inform the seller orally of the purpose of use of the fuel. Thus there are actually no restrictions when buying diesel fuel for specific purposes and it is available to everyone who, at the moment of buying, says that the purpose of use of the fuel is agriculture or fisheries. As a result of the amendment, diesel fuel for specific purposes will no longer be available to everyone but only to those who have the relevant right to buy it.
The Act provides that, in order to buy and use diesel fuel for specific purposes, the right to buy diesel fuel for specific purposes is needed and the grant of the right is decided by the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board. Thus, fuel subject to a reduced excise duty will no longer be sold to everyone who wishes to buy it. The right to buy is granted only to legal persons and sole proprietors operating in the agriculture and fisheries sector. Before sale, the seller of diesel fuel for specific purposes will have to check whether the person has the right to buy.
Ivari Padar took the floor on behalf of the Social Democratic Party Faction in the debate.
65 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act.
The Act on Amendments to the Road Transport Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (490 SE), initiated by the Government, brings the Road Transport Act, the Working Conditions of Employees Posted to Estonia Act and other Acts into conformity with the directives and directly applicable regulations of the European Union road package. The aim of the road package is to ensure adequate working conditions and social protection for drivers and the conditions for fair competition for road transport operators.
In international road transport for hire or reward, motor vehicles and combinations of vehicles with a permissible laden mass exceeding 2.5 tonnes but not exceeding 3.5 tonnes will also be subject to Community licence requirement. In order to obtain a licence, the carrier has to have, among other things, a transport manager who has completed the necessary training and is responsible for the road transport activities organised at the carrier.
For the transposition of the directive, it is necessary to establish implementing provisions extending the requirements of the Posted Workers Directive to the road transport sector. Therefore, in the future, drivers engaged in road transport in other countries will have to be paid remuneration at least in the amount of the minimum remuneration in the country where the posting takes place, including overtime remuneration, etc. This will apply in cases when, by agreement of the parties, remuneration is paid in the minimum amount, and the minimum remuneration in the country where the posting takes place is higher than the minimum remuneration in the driver’s home country.
During the debate, Sven Sester took the floor on behalf of Faction Isamaa.
60 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Act and 17 voted against.
Two Bills passed the second reading
The amendments proposed under the Bill on Amendments to the Family Benefits Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (512 SE), initiated by the Government, concern the payment of maintenance allowance and specifications to the regulation concerning the parental leave and benefit system due to enter into force on 1 April.
The Bill will amend the current regulation concerning the grant and payment of maintenance allowance by adding provisions on payment of maintenance allowance during bankruptcy proceedings, so that where a parent who is required to pay maintenance allowance is declared bankrupt, their child would have the possibility to obtain maintenance allowance from the state during bankruptcy proceedings. The state pays maintenance allowance up to 100 euro per month to a child whose parent or parents fail to fulfil their maintenance obligation. Under the current Act, it is possible to apply for maintenance allowance during both legal proceedings and enforcement proceedings, but not during bankruptcy proceedings.
The Bill will create an opportunity for the state to make a proactive offer of family benefits to parents whose child is stillborn or dies within 70 days after birth, so that the parents would not need to concern themselves with application for childbirth allowance and parental benefit at an emotionally complicated time. Under the Bill, mothers who are entitled to maternity leave will be ensured the right to use paid maternity leave of 100 days, and where a mother has less than 30 calendar days outstanding maternity leave by the moment of the child’s death, she will in any case be ensured 30 days of leave covered by mother’s parental benefit. Fathers, and mothers who do not have an employment or service relationship, will also be entitled to a parental benefit for father or mother, respectively, to the extent of 30 days if a child is stillborn or dies within 70 days after birth.
The amendments made during the second reading omitted from the Bill the words “registered partner” on the proposal of Faction Isamaa. In the course of the proceedings, other amendments were made to the Bill. For example, it will be ensured that the entitlement to mother’s parental benefit will also apply to persons legally staying and working in Estonia based on a temporary ground for stay for whom a payer of social tax is required to pay social tax or who pay social tax for themselves.
During the debate, Eduard Odinets (Social Democratic Party), Peeter Ernits (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Heiki Hepner (Isamaa) and Õnne Pillak (Reform Party) took the floor.
The Bill on Amendments to the Securities Market Act and Amendments to Other Associated Acts (505 SE), initiated by the Government, will amend the governance and capital requirements for investment firms in order that they would take better account of the business models and risks of investment firms. It will also reduce the regulative burden on professional providers of investment services and will increase the coverage level for deposits. The Bill will transpose two relevant EU directives. The Bill provides for the rights of the Financial Supervision Authority to require that investment firms hold additional capital and liquid resources in certain cases. The Bill will amend the capital requirements for investment firms according to the services they provide. The conditions for the payment of the salaries of managers and board members of investment firms, which are currently also regulated similarly to those of banks, will be amended. At the same time, the Bill will reduce the regulative burden on the providers of investment services, for example, banks, investment firms and funds.
Peeter Ernits (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) took the floor during the debate.
One Bill passed the first reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Obligation to Leave and Prohibition on Entry Act, the Police and Border Guard Act and the State Borders Act (implementation of the provisions of the Schengen acquis in the field of return) (518 SE), initiated by the Government.
On 28 November 2018, the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the use of the Schengen Information System for the return of illegally staying third-country nationals and the Regulation on the establishment, operation and use of the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the field of border checks, and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement were passed.
The Regulations obligate the Member States to enter an alert into SIS each time a return decision is taken in respect of an illegally staying third-country national or a Schengen entry ban is issued in respect of them.
The Bill will bring the Obligation to Leave and Prohibition on Entry Act, the Police and Border Guard Act and the State Borders Act into conformity with the requirements of the abovementioned Regulations.
In addition, amendments will be made in view of the remarks made to Estonia in 2018 in Schengen evaluations in the field of return. They concern in particular the short-term detention of illegally staying foreigners and the determination of the state responsible for return or removal.
A Resolution was not passed
The Draft Resolution of the Riigikogu “Making a Proposal to the Government of the Republic” (515 OE), submitted by the Social Democratic Party Faction, was intended to propose a plan to the Government on how to protect people from high electricity, natural gas and heating bills and how to compensate for the high price.
During the debate, Aivar Kokk took the floor on behalf of Faction Isamaa.
37 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the draft Resolution and 27 voted against. As a majority vote of the members of the Riigikogu was needed for the Resolution to be passed, it was not passed.
A Bill was dropped from the proceedings
The Bill on Amendments to the Government of the Republic Act (500 SE), initiated by Faction Isamaa, provided that the locations of the sites of ministries would be set out by law and could be changed only through parliamentary procedure and legislative change.
During the debate, Üllar Saaremäe took the floor on behalf of Faction Isamaa and Kalle Grünthal on behalf of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Faction.
The lead committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 36 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 13 voted against. Thus, the Bill was dropped from the legislative proceedings.
The sitting ended at 7.26 p.m.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
The video recording of the sitting will be available on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
(Please note that the recording will be uploaded with a delay.)
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