Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Law and Regulations, Legislation

"We will translate a certain amount of the most important laws that regulate the everyday life of people," justice minister Andres Anvelt (Social Democrats) told the Public Broadcasting news portal.

The minister said that these will include for example laws concerning business activities and consumer protection.

Anvelt pointed out that all Estonian laws have been translated to English and are available in the official Riigi Teataja bulletin and web page.

"We will make a selection of laws to guarantee a situation that the state will eventually economise from it and people are more legally aware. Certainly we will work on looking for other possibilities to raise the availability of Russian language legal aid," Anvelt said.

Anvelt said that they already have an initial list of laws to be translated but it will be analysed and consulted with different ministries. He said that by the end of this year the laws should be translated.

Estonian prime minister Taavi Rõivas said recently that translating laws to Russian is not very effective and will require a lot of resources. Anvelt said that it would be expensive if all laws were translated but if a small part of laws regulating everyday life are translated, it won't be a remarkable cost.

Social Democrats made a similar proposal to the parliament in September last year but the then government coalition rejected it.