Janek Mäggi steps down from Centre Party board
Janek Mäggi stepped down from the Center Party board on Friday, a spokesman said and will be replaced by Erki Savisaar, a member of the Riigikogu.
Janek Mäggi has been in the public eye over recent weeks for lobbying on behalf of Philip Morris International inc., an American multinational cigarette and tobacco manufacturing company.
ERR reported earlier this month this was to allow the company to legalize its heated tobacco product, Iqos, in Estonia.
"I have not been in contact with them or with this job before, but there is one purpose: to transpose the [EU Tobacco] Directive. As intended by the European Commission. There have been various disputes," he said in an interview with ERR earlier this month.
Mäggi was the Minister of Public Administration for a year in the previous government. Earlier this month he told magazine Kroonika that this job had been "tedious" and that "you have to read a lot, [and] sit in too many meetings..."
In addition to Mäggi, Kadri Simson, who has been replaced by Eha Võrk, deputy mayor of Tallinn, and also Toomas Vitsut, who has voluntarily resigned from the position of the Member of the Riigikogu, is replaced by Anneli Ott.
The rules for the Centre party stipulated that a member of the board shall be replaced by a member of the party with the next number of votes in the list of congressional members.
The party's chairman is Jüri Ratas, with Mailis Reps, Jaanus Karilaid and Mihhail Kõlvart continuing as vice-chairmen.
In addition, Taavi Aas, Enn Eesmaa, Jaak Aab, Siret Kotka-Repinski, Kalev Kallo, Vadim Belobrovtsev, Aadu Must, Yana Toom, Kersti Sarapuu and Jaan Männik are members of the Center Party Board.
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Editor: Helen Wright