Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Technology
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Friday, 29.03.2024, 13:45
Data embassy bill passes 1st reading in Estonian Riigikogu
Setting up
the data embassy in Luxembourg is necessary to guarantee the continuity of the
Estonian state, increase the security of Estonia's digital society and improve
the quality of storing data. It was also said that Luxembourg has high security
data centers and the country is ready to guarantee the inviolability of
Estonia's data and information systems.
Estonia's Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information
Technology Urve Palo and Luxembourg's Interior Minister Dan Kersch last October signed a rental agreement on data embassies that creates
the conditions for the Estonian data embassy in Luxembourg to start work this
year. With the rental agreement a more detailed agreement was made as regards
the technical requirements and financial obligations related to the hosting of
Estonian data and information systems in Luxembourg's high security national
data center.
The concept as a whole is novel and as far as is
known, no such national data hosting systems have been implemented yet. This is
not a diplomatic representation, for which privileges and immunity similar to
those of embassies will be applied to.
The relevant agreement was signed by Estonian
Prime Minister Juri Ratas and Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel on June 20, 2017 in Luxembourg. The document needs to be ratified in
the Estonian parliament. Luxembourg has already ratified it.
This is a novel solution in international
communication and the signing of this agreement created a precedent also in
international law.
The Estonian data embassy in Luxembourg will cost
approximately 2.2 million euros to set up and maintain over a period of five
years.
Establishment of the embassy will cost one million
euros, to which 236,000 euros on average in rental and data communication costs
will be added per year. Eighty-five percent of the funding will come
from the European Regional Development Fund and 15 percent as co-financing
by the government of Estonia.
Construction of the data embassy will be completed in
June 2018.