Initiation of Draft Acts

The right of legislative initiative lies with the members of the Riigikogu, factions of the Riigikogu, committees of the Riigikogu, the Government of the Republic and the President of the Republic with regard to amendment of the Constitution.

Preparation

Prior to making preparations for a draft act, the following key questions need to be answered:

• Why must the act be drafted or what problem needs to be solved?
• Is the act the most suitable type of legislation for solving the problem?

When these questions have been answered and the alternatives for solving the problem have been examined, a preliminary concept will be drawn up. It must be approved by the Ministry of Justice (if the latter refuses to give its approval, the matter will be solved by the government). Once the concept is in place, it must be decided who shall draft the act: whether an totally competent person or a work group (responsible ministry officials and experts of the appropriate field).

Drafting

It usually comprises the following steps:

• The structure of the act is prepared.
• The scope of the act is determined proceeding from the structure and the purpose of the law (the scope of other legislation must not be intruded upon).
• The definitions are identified and a preliminary text is written and linguistically revised.
• An explanatory memorandum is drawn up. It helps the legislator to explain his or her decisions and the applicability of solutions in society as a whole. The explanatory memorandum must be as thorough as possible.

Coordination

The draft act is made public for the purpose of receiving proposals. Prior to the submission of the draft act to the Government of the Republic, it must be coordinated with every Ministry bound by it or related with it through its area of government and in every case with the Ministry of Justice, which verifies its conformity with the Constitution and other acts and the general principles of public and private law. If the draft act is related to local governments, it will be coordinated with local government associations (Association of Cities), and if it is related to regional development issues, it will be coordinated with county governors.

Coordination is carried out with the aim of verifying the correctness of the assertions given in the explanatory memorandum and of analysing the results of its enforcement and the impact of the act. For example, the Ministry of Finance will analyse its impact on the state budget (the related expenditure and revenue).

If an agency is not willing to coordinate, the further course of the draft act will be decided by the Government of the Republic (it usually proceeds to the second round).