In time of war, Prime Minister to take the wheel

Photo: Esper Kaar / Kaitsevägi

The National Defence Act bill now under approval procedures will set up Prime Minister as the one in command. The current foundations for defending Estonia are considered obsolete and even comparable to arrangements preceding WW2. 

While talking about the bill, Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas pointed out the basic lesson from Russia’s activities against Georgia in 2008 and now against Ukraine: it is vital to react fast. Would he be ready to lead the state in time of war? To this, Mr Rõivas opted not to answer, referring to the issue being irrelevant as the new act will only enter into force in 2016 – at best. By then, a new government will be in power.

According to Mr Rõivas, the current law does allow a mobilisation, but the legal situation still needs to be tweaked.

Former Commander of the Defence Forces, Retired General Ants Laaneots begs to differ. «De jure, mobilisation cannot be carried out today,» he said. According to Ret. Gen Laaneots, concentration of power to Prime Minister and the government is logical. Without clear cut rules set by law, confusion could easily set in.

Defence minister Sven Mikser calls the new bill the Holding-Estonia-Together Act – the reason being that the current arrangements for national defence date back to the beginning of 1990ies and the rules that apply were laid down when Estonia was not yet in the NATO. 

A national defence strategy was adopted in 2010 already; the new bill comes as extension to that and is aimed at ensuring state leadership via clear lines of command in times of peace and in times of war. Already, visible steps are being taken to that end – in August, the Prime Minister will have Kadri Peeters as his security advisor. Ms Peeters is an experiences specialist currently employed by NATO in its Brussels headquarters. Among other things, Ms Peeters has acquired extra education at a NATO school Oberammergau, obtaining reserve officer papers.

Pursuant to the bill, war time state management would go as follows: the state is led by the government, as advised by security committee; the security committee in its turn will be led by the Prime Minister. Thereby, the Prime Ministerial role will substantially increase. The committee will be assisted by Government Office which will collect threat assessments and administrate information regarding national defence. Government Office shall also inform the President of the Republic, President of the Riigikogu, government authorities and Riigikogu committees. 

As pointed out by Ret. Gen. Laaneots, the weakest national defence link under the present legislation is the switch to war-time leadership. Partly, the new bill will mitigate the situation as the transfer will no longer require redistribution of power. At that, says Ret. Gen. Laaneots, the need remains to also specify private sector obligations. Finland, for instance, has a detailed plan for that – not so in Estonia. The bill now doing its «rounds» is a step towards the Finnish system enabling management of civilian agencies according to war-time demands. 

As laid out in the current draft of the bill, the ministries and state authorities will receive specific war-time action pans. From there on, obligations of private sector organisations will also be determined – as allowed by section 49 of the bill. Based on the selfsame section, the government shall compile a list of national defence posts which may be altered during heightened defence readiness, mobilisation, demobilisation, or state of war. 

As explained by defence Ministry deputy PR head Peeter Kuimet, with reservists their efficiency needs to be considered. «Even in time of war, Eesti Energia ought to keep the energy network going. Therefore, a person working as network operator may be of more use for national defence as a specialist than an assistant to machine gunner, for instance,» he said. Based on that assessment, the person should not go to the battle lines.

Meanwhile, the bill would alter the usual order of working so that the usual rest periods will no longer be valid in war – if needed, people must work during day, at night and on public holidays; overtime cannot be shunned. If needed, national defence authorities may unilaterally lower wages.

Reinsalu: I hope for smooth cooperation in Riigikogu

Birthed by the initiative of previous government defence minister Urmas Reinsalu, the new National Defence Act ought to cut red tape in state of crisis or war, allowing for more efficiency during danger.    

What will the new Act alter, in reality? What is the chief aim of the bill?

The main goal is that the peace-time situation and crisis situations – be it crisis caused by war or a crisis caused by state of emergency – would be as similar as possible when it comes to national defence. While shifting from peace time into crisis, nowadays there’s precious little time and the system, therefore, must be built as similarly as possible. This is the most important change, philosophically: to alter the existing peace time and war time National Defence Acts, to converge these.

And the other central topic will answer a bunch of issues related to smooth-running management of national defence. First and foremost, centralising the entire governmental responsibility to Prime Minister as related to national defence.

Beholding the current crisis in the world, and Estonia in it – will the new law fit in, will it be relevant and useful?

Very useful. All the latest crises starting with the Russia-Georgia war and ending with the Ukrainian war have revealed that crises develop very fast. Peace time may transit into state of crisis or war very quickly. Today, we have in-between forms, grey areas, in our legislation; the new act will allow legal issues and the moment of responsibility to be settled very rapidly. The less bureaucracy, the better – thinking of the world today. In the situation today, I do hope our parliament will process the bill in the spirit of consensus and will ratify it before next elections.

Is that possible?

I do hope so. Surely, polemic may arise in issues of principle in the very management of national defence and, probably, various nuances will be highlighted; but I do hope that overall the discussions will go smooth and IRL will surely support that.