BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Laws relaxed for Non-EU nationals

TALLINN - The Interior Ministry announced this week that the laws governing work permits for non-EU nationals are to be reformed.

At present, an employer has to advertise a vacancy six months in advance for the Interior Ministry to allow someone from outside the EU to take the position. This is to be reduced to two months.

At the same time the overall quota of guest workers in Estonia is to be increased from 0.05 to 0.1 percent of the Estonian population.

A ship arrest in ESTONIA

By Sorainen Law Offices

Background.

Estonia’s main sea port is Tallinn and since 1990 it has experienced considerable growth of transit of cargo. Estonia has ratified the 1999 Convention On Ship Arrests and it has also incorporated the principles of the Convention into the national legislation regulating arrest of the ships. Such legislation is mainly Law of Property of Ships and Code of Civil Proceedings.

Jurisdiction.

The presence of a ship in Estonian territorial sea is sufficient to found jurisdiction in Estonia. A claim on ship arrest, as a tool to secure the claim, should be presented, as a general rule, to the same court, which according to jurisdiction rules will decide over the principal claim.

General possibility of arrest.

The Law Of Property of Ships determines the meaning of maritime claim and provides that a ship may be arrested to secure a maritime claim only. Maritime claim in Estonian legislation has wider meaning than in the above-mentioned arrest conventions.

Time available to submit the Statement of Claim.

If the Court applies the arrest of ship, as a provisional security measure, before a principal claim is submitted to the Court then the principal claim shall be submitted in 30 days. In case of failure to submit the principal claim to the Court within the specified term by the Court, the interim security measure shall be repealed.

Estonia agrees to enforce sentences imposed by UN war crimes tribunal

Estonia today became the fourteenth European country to agree to enforce a sentence imposed by the United Nations war crimes tribunal that was set up to deal with the worst crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s.

Anyone convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and given a jail term can now serve that sentence in an Estonian prison after an agreement was signed in Tallinn, the capital.

Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ukraine and Portugal have already entered into similar agreements with the Tribunal.

More than 35 people convicted by the ICTY either have served, or are currently serving, their sentence in one of the European countries which have signed an agreement. Seven others are awaiting transfer to one of the States.

Under today's agreement, which must be ratified by the country's Parliament, Estonia will only enforce ICTY sentences when the length of the jail term does not exceed the highest maximum sentence for a relevant crime under its domestic laws.

Estonia may enlarge list of reasons for aliens' expulsion

TALLINN - Estonia's government gave consideration at a meeting on Thursday to proposed legislation to enlarge the list of reasons for which an alien or a stateless person may be expelled from the country.

Today's law permits expelling and imposing a 10-year entry ban on those who have committed any of so-called "first degree" offenses - crimes such as murder, rape and robbery.

The proposed amendments to this law would extend the category to those who have committed "second degree" offenses - less serious crimes, Justice Minister Rein Lang told reporters after the government meeting.

According to the Russian Embassy in Estonia, there live about 110,000 Russian citizens and about 120,000 stateless persons in the Baltic country, whose total population is estimated at 1.34 million.

The projected amendments would "primarily apply to aliens who have repeatedly broken Estonian laws, for example have committed serious breaches of the peace or crimes against property or have been staying in Estonia illegally," Lang said.

Citizen of European Union Act

Citizen of European Union Act

Passed 20 November 2002

(RT¹ I 2002, 102, 599),

entered into force 1 May 2004,

amended by the following Act:

17.03.2004 entered into force 01.05.2004 - RT I 2004, 19, 134.

Chapter 1

General Provisions 

§ 1. Scope of application

• This Act regulates the bases for stay in Estonia of citizens of the European Union and their family members.

• The provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (RT I 2001, 58, 354; 2002, 53, 336; 61, 375) apply to the administrative proceedings prescribed in this Act, taking account of the specifications provided for in this Act.

§ 2. Citizen of European Union

- For the purposes of this Act, a citizen of the European Union is a person who is a citizen of another member state of the European Union than Estonia.

§ 3. Family member of citizen of European Union

- For the purposes of this Act, a family member of a citizen of the European Union (hereinafter family member) is a person who is not a citizen of Estonia and who is:

• a spouse of the citizen of the European Union (hereinafter spouse);

• a child under 21 years of age or a dependent adult child or grandchild of the citizen of the European Union;

• a dependent parent or grandparent of the citizen of the European Union or of his or her spouse;

• a person not specified in clauses 1)-3) of this section who is dependent on the citizen of the European Union or residing with him or her and has a shared household with him or her.

Chapter 2

Stay in Estonia

Who does not need a visa to visit Estonia ?

As of 21 December 2007, Estonia is a part of the Schengen visa area.

Nationals of the member states of EU and EEA - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom - and Switzerland.
The bases for their stay in Estonia are regulated by the Citizen of European Union Act (the text is available on the homepage of Estonian Legal Language Centre).

Schengen States - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta.

Although documents are not checked when one crosses an internal Schengen border, it is still necessary for EU citizens (including Estonians) to carry a passport or ID card. Authorities (police, immigration officials) in Schengen states do have the right to check identifying documents, if necessary.

Union's breach of EU law : protection of seafarers

Court of Justice of the European Communities

International Transport Workers’ Federation and Another v Viking Line ABP and Another Case C-438/05

Before V. Skouris, President, and Judges P. Jann, A. Rosas, K. Lenaerts, U. Lõhmus, L. Bay Larsen, R. Schintgen, R. Silva de Lapuerta, K. Schiemann, J. Makarczyk, P. Kuris, E. Levits and A. Ó Caoimh Advocate-General M. Poiares Maduro (Opinion May 23, 2007)

Judgment December 11, 2007

The protection of workers could justify industrial action causing a restriction on freedom of establishment of a shipowner proposing to reflag the vessel for economic reasons.

The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Communities so held, inter alia, on a reference for a preliminary ruling under article 234 EC by the Court of Appeal.

The second respondent, the Finnish Seamen’s Union (FSU), was affiliated to the first respondent, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), one of whose primary policies was to eliminate flags of convenience and to establish genuine links between the flag of a ship and the nationality of its owner and promote the interests of seafarers on flag of convenience ships.

The first applicant, a Finnish ferry operator, Viking Line ABP, operated a vessel, Rosella, which sailed, under the Finnish flag, between Finland and Estonia, and whose crew were members of the FSU.

Estonia mulls money-laundering law

TALLINN - The Estonian government discussed a bill Oct. 18 designed to prevent money laundering and terrorism and approved it for presentation to parliament.

The aim of the draft legislation is to create a system of measures to prevent terrorist activities with a view to protecting the reliability of the country's financial sector and whole economic space.

The Finance Ministry said the law will expand the circle of persons who in their economic, professional and official activity are obliged to observe the requirements of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.

This category includes all banks and providers of financial services, gaming operators, real estate brokers, pawnbrokers, auditors and providers of book-keeping and consulting services.

The obligation expands to all traders in cases of receiving a cash payment of more than 200,000 kroons (EUR 12,780) or the equivalent in some other currency, and in certain cases also to notaries public, lawyers, bailiffs, bankruptcy trustees and providers of other legal services.

The bill provides more detailed regulations for the identification of customers than the present law.

"This means, for instance, that providers of express SMS loans will in the future have to identify the borrower on the basis of a document," Finance Minister Ivari Padar explained. "The possibility of somone being cheated out of their money by an SMS loan will thereby disappear."

Citizenship bill to close legal loophole

TALLINN – Estonia’s opposition Center Party handed in a bill into parliament Oct. 9 which would automatically grant citizenship to the children of stateless residents of Estonia.

Under the bill, citizenship would be granted automatically to children, both of whose parents live in Estonia with a permanent residence permit at the time of the child's birth but are not citizens of Estonia.

The move would address a gap in the current law that was pointed out by EU commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, who visited Estonia last week. Under existing laws, such children are entitled to citizenship, but their parents have to go to the trouble of applying on their behalf.

The amendment would narrow the split between ethnic Estonians and Russians and reduce bureaucracy, authors claim.

There were 125,799 stateless persons living in Estonia on a permanent residence permit at the end of 2006. The number of naturalized residents was 6,523 in 2004, 7,072 in 2005 and 4,753 in 2006.

Optimization schemes in Estonia are justified

by Konstantin Kotivnenko

* The Supreme Court of Estonia recently refused to review two decisions of the Tallinn Appeals Court regarding cases that involved capital-gains on a sale of securities after an individual transferred his securities to a legal entity as a non-monetary contribution and then sold out, pocketing the profit and avoiding taxes.

Currently, resident natural investors – i.e., individuals – are subject to income tax of 22 percent on capital gains realized from a sale of securities. The law provides for tax credit in cases where a resident individual is subject to income tax abroad.