"There is no draft bill yet," Terras said. "Some legal details need to be worked out, and once a preliminary text is ready, we will discuss it with other parties. The Political Parties Act affects all parties, so there will certainly be various amendments as well."

Terras stressed the importance of ensuring that parties convicted of corruption do not use state funds to pay fines: "That seems completely wrong to me, and we have agreed to put an end to it."

When asked whether it would be legally sound to apply such a law retroactively — meaning it could not be used to regulate the current Center Party case and court ruling — Terras said the bill's core idea is to establish clear criteria for how parties receive state funding.

"It's similar to how a person convicted of a criminal offense cannot apply for a government job — it's a prerequisite. This is not about directly punishing a party. The Center Party case certainly brought this issue to the forefront, but in principle, it is wrong that state money can be used to cover corruption fines. If parties receive state funding even after being fined, the penalty loses its impact, as they can just continue operating with state funds," he explained.

State funding for political parties is allocated annually and is calculated by how many seats each party won at the last election.

"If this condition is explicitly set in law, it could be entirely feasible. On the other hand, there is a legitimate expectation regarding these funds, so we will definitely need to involve constitutional law experts in the Constitutional Committee to determine where the balance point lies," Terras said.

One option is a partial reduction of state funding, allowing a party to retain, for example, 25 percent of its budget for operational expenses. Another possibility is to include a clause stating the remaining funds cannot be used to pay fines.

Eesti 200 believes state funding should be entirely revoked for convicted parties, but moving forward with this proposal requires support from coalition partners.

The coalition council also discussed SDE Chairman Lauri Läänemets' proposal to cap annual donations from major political donors at €100,000.

"The initial plan is to proceed with addressing state funding in the context of criminally convicted parties. A broader amendment to the Political Parties Act is also forthcoming, which will address other longstanding issues raised by the Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee (ERJK). We will see how Läänemets' proposal fits into this framework," said Terras.

The MP said Eesti 200 and the Reform Party did not support Läänemets' proposal but he added that discussions on the coalition partner's proposal should take place in the Constitutional Committee.

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