President Meri today signed the resolution to proclaim the Bar Association Act passed in the Riigikogu on March 21, 2001 unamended. The Bar Association Act was first passed in the Riigikogu on February 21, 2001, and the President of the Republic refused to proclaim it with his resolution from March 14, 2001.

When first taking the Bar Association Act into legislative proceedings, the Riigikogu paid no attention to the problem of the availability of legal aid to the poor and to the problem of the reliability and quality of legal aid. Yet the unavailability and unreliability of legal aid is one of the most urgent practical problems in Estonia today. The unavailability and unreliability of legal aid is one of the main reasons why the protection of an individual's rights can not be sufficiently guaranteed. And yet the actual protection of an individual's rights is the main requirement of the rule of law. Refusing to proclaim the Bar Association Act for the first time, President Meri proposed that the Riigikogu should deal with the matters related to the organisation of legal services in a comprehensive manner and to pay attention above all to the questions of the availability and reliability of legal aid. When considering the President's resolution to refuse to proclaim the Bar Association Act, the Riigikogu admitted that all the problems pointed out by President Meri do indeed exist in Estonian legal order.

The Riigikogu unanimously adopted the position that the problems pointed out by President Meri must be seriously addressed. The draft resolution No. 723 OE initiated by the Legal Committee of the Riigikogu is a proof of that. The Riigikogu's good will and serious intent to improve the current situation that is incompatible with the Constitution formed a basis for President Meri's decision to proclaim the Bar Association Act today.

President Meri hopes that the Riigikogu will not neglect this serious and necessary initiative and will, already during its next session, be able to provide legislative solutions to the problems of availability and reliability of legal aid. As President Meri said, those are some of the most important matters to be handled by the IX Riigikogu.

The President of the Republic also proclaimed the ''Minimum Stock of Liquid Fuels Act'' and the ''Accession to the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979, and Its Amendments Act'', passed in the Riigikogu on March 21, 2001.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, April 3, 2001

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