At the beginning of July, President Alar Karis declined to promulgate two laws, citing their incompatibility with the Estonian Constitution. This marks the second time he has refused to sign the amendments to the Churches and Congregations Act.

The Riigikogu must now decide whether to amend the laws. If it chooses to adopt them in their current form, the president is likely to refer the matter to the Supreme Court.

In rejecting the laws, the president stated that while both aim to serve important purposes, those aims will not be achieved if the legislation introduces not only necessary restrictions but also excessive room for interpretation, leading to numerous legal disputes.

The Riigikogu has already made some adjustments to the text of the Churches and Congregations Act, but the president considers these changes insufficient. He argues that the law disproportionately restricts freedom of association and freedom of religion.

The Riigikogu first passed the law on April 9, after which the president declined to sign it on April 24. The amendment seeks to stop churches from being influenced by foreign powers and came on the heels of the then Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate controversy.

Regarding the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act, the president emphasized that in cases involving automated data processing, it is especially important to ensure safeguards for the protection of personal data.

As currently drafted, the law would allow the Financial Intelligence Unit to compile a machine-readable database from 11 national registries. Although the data would be anonymized, the system would permit re-identification when detecting patterns indicative of money laundering. According to Karis, this places an excessive burden on individual rights, which cannot be limited merely to simplify public authority operations or to save costs.

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