The president promulgates the schools act.
Postimees Digest, Thursday, July 4
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President Toomas Hendrik Ilves promulgated the basic and higher secondary schools act in July 3. Ilves stated that the law is constitutional and he would not interfere with the rights of the parliament. The opposition Social Democratic and Center factions appealed to the president last week to reject the bill, arguing that the wording of the document is confusing and it had been passed in violation of the parliamentary regulations. The controversial articles stipulate that graduation examinations can be passed with one percent of maximum result, while 20-percent score would count as satisfactory passing of the test. Ilves criticized the work of the parliament and the failure to seek for consensus.
Law amendment makes criminals' property confiscation easier.
A law amendment will allow the confiscation of criminals' property for crimes punished by one-year prison sentence, Minister for the Interior Ken-Marti Vaher announced. The current law allows extended confiscation only in case of three-year or longer sentences. Vaher stressed that the amendment is significant due to the increasing frequency of white-collar crime. He added that tougher punishments for drug-related crimes, introduced in 2004, have resulted in significant decline of narcotics trade in Estonia.
Income gap with Nordic countries widened. The income gap between Estonia and the Scandinavian countries has been widening during the past decade, economic experts point out. Analysts argue that the period includes a serious economic crisis and that income difference has started to decline in the past couple of years and would continue to do so if Estonia can maintain annual growth rate above two percent. Considering purchasing power, Estonia's per capita GDP in 2009 was 55 percent of Finland's and 52 percent of Sweden's, while the corresponding figures for 2012 were 60 and 53 percent. Experts recommend concentrating efforts in the sectors providing the greatest value added like manufacturing industry, wholesale and retail trade, construction, logistics, IT and communications.
EU pollution fees drive up energy prices.
The European Parliament has decided to increase the cost of pollution quotas in 2013-2015, resulting in further rise of electricity prices. Energy specialists point out that the decision undermines the reliability of the quotas system and complicates the operation of energy producers, who will have to compete with cheaper energy from outside the EU. Postimees commented that while Estonia would have preferred to oppose the quota reduction, it failed to do so out of fear to be seen siding with Greece and Cyprus.