Estonian govt approves national defense bill

Photo: Tairo Lutter / Virumaa Teataja

The Estonian government on Thursday approved the draft national defense law that combines three separate laws regulating defense of the country at present.

The new law will replace the War-Time National Defense Act, the Peacetime National Defense Act and the International Military Cooperation Act, the government's press service said.

Based on the concept of comprehensive national defense, the bill creates a legal framework for efficient response to threats in the present-day changing security environment. It combines military defense, public engagement in defense of the country and protection of the population as elements of national defense, encompassing the areas of governance of all ministries and the rest of the society.

The draft law increases the role of the prime minister, the government and the government office in managing national defense and introduces a more flexible regulation of substituting for the nation's leaders to ensure efficient leadership in the event of an attack.

The bill provides a more exact definition of mobilization and more flexible rules of organizing compulsory military service, alternative service and reserve service, and creates further possibilities for staging additional training events.

It also specifies the rights and obligations of allied forces during a military operation on Estonian territory and sets out more flexible rules for using the defense forces in international military operations.

The bill needs a majority of votes in parliament to be adopted. It is planned for the law to step into effect on Jan. 1, 2016.