The bill merges the aviation, road and waterways agencies. According to the draft, the proposed name of the new joint agency is Liikumusamet. The Riigikogu makes the final decision in this regard. The merger of offices is based on the general principle of state reform to reduce the number and duplication of authorities and improve the quality and availability of public services.
The new office aims to create a competence center for all modes of transport, where smart mobility can be planned solutions and implement projects across modes of transport.
The merger does not only reorganize work between professions. With the merger, the position of Maritime Vice-Chancellor of the Ministry of the Interior is created. Also, with the merger, the marketing activities of the project of bringing the ships under the flag will be brought to the ministry.
The bill amends the provisions of the law governing electronic information exchange. As a result of the change, the procuring entity is freed from the obligation of electronic information exchange in such public procurements, the cost of which is small, i.e. less than 30,000 euros in the case of goods and services and less than 60,000 euros in the case of construction works.
The current law mandates the use of high-security electronic information exchange for every public procurement, regardless of cost. The purpose of the amendment is to enable easier electronic exchange of information in low-cost public procurements (e.g. by e-mail), which significantly reduces the workload of procurers and the administrative burden of providers. In mini-tenders organized on the basis of a framework contract, the obligation of electronic information exchange would not apply if the estimated cost of the contract to be concluded is below the limit of simple procurement, i.e. less than 30,000 euros in the case of goods and services. For those public procurements in which the law does not provide for the limit of simple procurement, the obligation of electronic information exchange would apply from the limit of public procurement.
At the proposal of the Ministry of Culture, after the coordination round, an amendment to the Act on commissioning works of art has been added, which raises the limit, from which the commissioning of works of art must also be carried out in connection with the commissioning of construction works. The current limit is 450,000 euros, it will be increased to 750,000 euros. In addition, the Minister of the Environment is given the authority to establish mandatory environmental criteria in procurements for the purchase of furniture, cleaning products and services, office IT equipment, copy and drawing paper.
With the draft, the corresponding EU directives are adopted into Estonian law, the aim of which is to update and harmonize passenger ship safety requirements, to improve the safety of passengers and crew and rescue options on passenger ships, and to ensure that search and rescue operations and the consequences of a possible accident are handled more efficiently and that the competent authorities have operational information about the persons on board the passenger ship, as well as on passenger ferries and high-speed passenger ships. harmonization of mandatory inspections and reduction of duplicate inspection procedures.
The bill concerns the owners and operators of passenger ships whose ships make regular voyages and visit Estonian ports, and the work of officials and inspectors of the Ship Supervision Department of the Waterways Board. The bill concerns all companies whose passenger ships make regular trips both within Estonia and to other European Union or foreign countries to ports. The bill stipulates the obligation to report the number of persons on board the cruise ship to the electronic marine information system. Passenger ships that make regular voyages of more than 20 nautical miles and that are not exempted from the corresponding obligation on the basis of the Maritime Safety Act, also transmit to the electronic marine information system the list of persons on board the passenger ship. In the bill, the shipowner's obligation to keep a personal register is omitted.