Opposition Drops Budget Filibustering, but Presses on Budget-Related Bills
The 2013 state budget goes into the third and final reading today in Parliament.
Planned revenue is 7.5 billion euros, and spending totals 7.7 million euros. Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi has said the budget will increase a sense of social security, ETV reported, but the opposition has dismissed this as propaganda.
The biggest change in the budget is that payroll in the government sector is expected to grow by 4.4 percent.
Twelve amendment proposals came in from the opposition Social Democrats and Center Party, of which the Finance Committee did not support any.
Although several other bills related to the budget are currently under discussion, ERR radio reported that the Center Party is discontinuing filibustering tactics with the passing of the draft legislation now imminent.
Tuesday's discussions focused on the draft Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act, where the Center Party proposed that other languages be permitted as languages of instruction in municipal schools and individual classes, provided that graduates be proficient in Estonian.
MP Mailis Reps said that not all schools are yet ready to comply with the requirements that Estonian be the sole language of instruction.
"Without enough textbooks, teacher training and methodological advice, a situation may arise where many subjects are taught in Estonian, but due to the language barrier students' knowledge of a subject could suffer," said Reps.
Reps said the goal should be to avoid "ethnic ghettoization."