The bill regulates data management, which stipulates certain rules that must be met by the data and data management in the databases. The conditions of data management will be determined and the coordination of data management will be given to Statistics Estonia.
Currently, common rules for state data management have not been agreed upon, so it is not possible to apply the rule of one-time request for data. It is also currently not regulated who should manage the data to coordinate at the national level.
A data sharing service will be added to the Public Information Act, which will enable the linking of different data sources and the processing of data for scientific or statistical purposes in the future.
The implementation of the changes makes it possible to ensure that the data in the databases can be linked together, provide better services, reduce the administrative burden, and make national statistics based on already collected data.
The bill provides for the allocation of support from the property reform reserve fund to solve the problems of housing and abandoned buildings that arose during or as a result of the property reform, and to redress the injustice done to churches by violating property rights during the war and occupation.
The bill envisages giving the local governments of the big islands (Saaremaa, Muhumaa and Hiiumaa) the opportunity to organize ferry and air traffic. The explanatory letter states that as a result of the administrative reform, municipalities are larger and more capable and know best the wishes of local residents and how to organize local people's movements.
The draft brings the selection of board members of state-owned enterprises to the level of law through the nomination committee. In order to ensure the stability and greater independence of the nomination committee's work, it is necessary to establish a regulation that creates the possibility for it to act as a permanent body. In connection with this, the right of the Minister of Finance to appoint half of the state representatives to the boards of state-owned companies is cancelled. The obligation of the Minister of Finance to regulate with the participation of the state will also be abolished the limits of the fees paid to members of the supervisory board of companies. In the future, state-owned companies will be able to pay subsidies for their field of activity only for development and research activities. Larger state companies will follow the information disclosure rules of listed companies
The bill establishes a new complete text of the Explosives Act, which regulates the handling of explosives and pyrotechnic products. The purpose of the bill is to ensure that the handling of explosive material and pyrotechnic products is safe and does not endanger human life and health, property and the environment. The aim is also to ensure security: to prevent the illegal use of explosives or pyrotechnic products. The purpose of the law does not change.
In the explanatory letter it is noted that new EU requirements for pyrotechnic products will come into force this year. According to the bill, the most powerful (category F3) fireworks can be purchased from the age of 18, currently the age limit is 21. The seller no longer needs to register a sale transaction of category F3.
For private individuals, a limit is set on the maximum amount of pyrotechnic products kept at home, which is a total of 20 kg of pyrotechnic products. In current law there were no defined quantities of pyrotechnic products that a private person could store without meeting special conditions. It is also stipulated that a gun store can store up to 50 kg of gunpowder without complying with special requirements. The current law does not specify the limit. The economic committee was appointed as the leading committee.
With the bill, the directive on the private implementation of competition law will be adopted into Estonian law. The provisions regulate, among other things, claims that arise from an agreement that harms competition, a decision by an association of entrepreneurs or abuse of a dominant market position. In particular, it concerns cartel agreements and abuses of monopoly status. The deadline for transposing the directive was December 27, 2016.
According to the bill, everyone has a corresponding loss the victim has the opportunity to receive full compensation for the damage, which means compensation for direct property damage, lost income and delays. According to current law, the injured party can only be determined by interpretation, and lost income cannot generally be claimed. The bill changes the beginning of the calculation of the delay for the corresponding claims, according to which the delay must be paid from the occurrence of the loss until the loss is compensated. According to the applicable law from the time when the creditor notified the debtor of his claim or filed a claim as a claim or payment order as an urgent procedure application. The draft stipulates 5 years as the limitation period for a claim arising from the commission of a prohibited act. According to the current law, the limitation period for the claim is 3 years. In addition to the transposition of the directive, the draft again gives the Competition Authority the right to exercise administrative supervision, which means issuing orders to a local government unit, state institution or to another person performing administrative tasks.