The Riigikogu sent the draft supplementary budget to its third reading
The Riigikogu deliberated four Bills and heard the replies to an interpellation.
A Bill passed the second reading
The Bill on the State’s Supplementary Budget for 2026 (910 SE), initiated by the Government, passed its second reading in the Riigikogu. It will reduce state revenues by EUR 24 million and increase expenditures by EUR 4.4 million. According to the bill, investments will decrease by EUR 1.5 million and the budget for financing transactions will increase by EUR 37.9 million.
The bill will direct EUR 10.98 million in expenses and investments to Eesti.ai projects, which, among other things, aim to improve people’s AI skills and make the public sector more efficient. EUR 17 million will be allocated for the construction of the eastern border to pay for contractual obligations already undertaken. The investments of the State Real Estate Ltd and Hexest Materials Ltd will also be specified. The allocation to the Estonian Cultural Endowment will be increased by the amount of voluntary payments made to the state budget by gambling operators and the income tax paid on those payments.
The cancellation of the fuel excise duty increase starting from 1 May will lead to the largest decrease in revenue, amounting to EUR 36 million. To increase revenues, an additional 20 million in dividends will be taken from the State Forest Management Centre from net profit.
The budget deficit will remain at 4.3 percent of GDP, i.e. at the same level as in the Ministry of Finance’s spring forecast. Next year’s budget deficit will decrease by 0.1 percent of GDP as a result of the proposals.
For the second reading, the Finance Committee included a provision to increase the single parent’s child allowance from EUR 80 to EUR 100 starting from 1 September 2026. The amendment will result in additional expenditure of approximately EUR 600,000 for the state budget in 2026 which will be covered from the budget for IT investments in the area of government of the Ministry of Social Affairs, with projects being postponed until next year. Starting from 2027, the additional expenditure will be taken into account during the preparation of the state budget strategy for 2027–2030.
In the 2026 state budget adopted by the Riigikogu last December, revenues totalled EUR 18.6 billion and expenditures EUR 19.5 billion, while investments totalled EUR 1.3 billion and financing transactions EUR 1.5 billion.
Aleksandr Tšaplõgin (Centre Party), Aivar Kokk (Isamaa), Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa), Helmen Kütt (Social Democratic Party), Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart (Centre Party) and Vladimir Arhipov (Centre Party) took the floor during the debate.
Isamaa Parliamentary Group and the Centre Party Group moved to suspend the second reading of the Bill. The motion was not supported because 17 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of it and 41 voted against.
The second reading of the Bill was concluded and the deadline for submission of motions to amend was set for 5.15 p.m. on 10 June.
Three Bills passed the first reading
The Bill on the Ratification of the Agreement on the Interpretation and Application of the Energy Charter Treaty (921 SE), initiated by the Government. Estonia has signed the Agreement on the Interpretation and Application of the Energy Charter Treaty, but it still needs to be ratified.
Challenges have arisen for the European Union in situations where the Energy Charter Treaty has been interpreted as an instrument covering intra-EU relations, even though that has never been the intention of the Energy Charter. The EU, Euratom, and the Member States have not wanted to, and have not been able to, establish mutual obligations through the Energy Charter, because the Energy Charter has been designed as a foreign policy instrument for energy cooperation with third countries. The EU’s internal energy policy is based on extensive and detailed internal market provisions that regulate relations between Member States.
The European Union and the Member States are showing through the agreement that an arbitral tribunal established under Article 26 of the Charter cannot resolve disputes between an EU Member State and an investor from the EU in matters of energy cooperation; instead, such disputes must be resolved in accordance with EU law. Arbitral tribunals may hear cases in which the other party to the dispute is a third country or an investor from a third country. Arbitral tribunals do not have jurisdiction to resolve intra-EU disputes.
The purpose of concluding the agreement is to establish a clear international legal instrument that arbitral tribunals and other dispute resolution bodies must take into account in international disputes. The agreement follows a declaration concerning the legal consequences arising from the judgment of the Court of Justice in the Komstroy case (Moldova v Komstroy, case C-741/19).
Hungary is not a party to the agreement, as it did not agree to the legal basis of the European Union’s founding treaties referred to in the agreement. The first reading of the Bill was concluded.
The Bill on Amendments to the Taxation Act, the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act and the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Enforcement Procedure Implementation Act (924 SE), initiated by the Government, will specify the rights of the Tax and Customs Board and the Financial Intelligence Unit to obtain data necessary for tax controls and for carrying out anti-money laundering tasks, in particular regarding bank accounts and account data. It will be clearly provided that the Tax and Customs Board will also have the right to request information from credit institutions in tax proceedings and this right will also include bank secrecy.
It will be specified and delimited what data the Tax and Customs Board may request through the information exchange channel of the enforcement register. If the Tax and Customs Board requests information through the enforcement register, in the future, the order will have to include an explanation of the factual circumstances, including a justification as to why it was not possible to obtain the necessary data from the taxable person. This will make requesting data more transparent and help limit unjustified interference with individuals’ rights.
With regard to the Financial Intelligence Unit, it will be specified that it has the right to obtain account data, including account balances and account statements, through the enforcement register in justified cases. It will also be provided that a natural person must be notified of a request for an account statement after five years have passed once the grounds provided for in the law preventing notification have ceased to exist. This obligation will apply to queries that are made after the Act enters into force.
According to the bill, the current retention periods will be shortened in order to reduce the infringement of personality rights. Some of the provisions concerning data retention will enter into force later, on 30 June 2027.
The background to the amendments lies in the Chancellor of Justice’s observations that the Tax and Customs Board’s access to the enforcement register outside criminal proceedings is unclearly regulated in the current Act and that the Financial Intelligence Unit’s right to obtain bank account statements is not sufficiently clearly provided. The bill aims to write these rights more clearly and specifically into the Act.
In addition, the rights of the data subject when accessing data processing will be delimited, and the grounds for when and which rights the FIU may restrict will be established in accordance with European Union law. The regulation of the supervision by the Financial Intelligence Unit will also be revised and the wording of the provisions will be improved in light of a recent interpretation by the Supreme Court and the need to make the regulation of anti-money laundering supervision more precise in terms of terminology.
Urmas Reinsalu took the floor behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group during the debate.
The first reading of the Bill was concluded.
The Insurance Undertaking Crisis Prevention and Resolution Bill (925 SE), initiated by the Government, will transpose into Estonian law two EU insurance directives. The aim is to establish a framework for early intervention and crisis resolution in the financial difficulties of insurance undertakings and to update insurance regulation in order to strengthen financial stability, protect policyholders, and make the regulation more proportionate and future-proof.
The bill will simplify the requirements and market entry conditions particularly for small and non-complex insurance undertakings. For example, they will not have to draw up a liquidity risk management plan or climate change scenarios, and their risks and solvency will be assessed every two years, rather than annually. Nor will they need to assess macroeconomic factors.
The bill will extend the deadlines for supervision and public reporting for all insurance undertakings and update the capital and investment rules for insurance undertakings to encourage long-term equity investments and reduce the impact of market fluctuations.
The amendments will strengthen risk management and supervision and increase attention to taking climate and sustainability risks into account. Insurance undertakings will be required to develop climate change scenarios if climate change-related risks have a significant impact on them. Insurance undertakings will also have to draw up action plans on how to measure, monitor and reduce environmental, social, and other sustainability-related risks. In addition, insurance undertakings will have to increase the diversity and gender balance of the composition of their management bodies.
A regulation of crisis resolution in the insurance sector will create the opportunity to intervene early in the case of an insurance undertaking in difficulty in order to restore the insurance undertaking’s financial position before serious problems arise and, if necessary, implement measures that protect policyholders and financial stability. Crisis resolution will be initiated only if other solutions are insufficient and it is necessary in the public interest.
The first reading of the Bill was concluded.
An interpellation was replied
Minister of Energy and the Environment Andres Sutt replied to the interpellation concerning the conflicts of interest arising from the “revolving door” effect within the area of administration of the Ministry of Climate (No. 1004), submitted by members of the Riigikogu.
The interpellation concerning the deterioration in the livelihoods and financial health of Estonian people (No. 960), submitted to Prime Minister Kristen Michal, was excluded from the agenda. The deliberation was cancelled due to changes in the Prime Minister’s schedule and with the consent of the interpellators.
A sheltering exercise, which brought about a recess in the sitting of the Riigikogu, was held at Toompea Castle as part of the large-scale nationwide comprehensive defence exercise ILVES 2026 (LYNX2026).
The sitting ended at 6.52 p.m.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Gunnar Paal
+372 631 6351, +372 5190 2837
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