A lot of legal gray area favoring party funding violations
There's a lot of gray area around party financing, making violations hard to detect and prove, experts say. They believe the law needs clearer rules.
For decades, political parties in Estonia have received most of their funding either from state subsidies or a handful of large donations. According to Kaarel Tarand, deputy chair of the Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee (ERJK), neither source has significantly increased over time. A chronic lack of funds is driving questionable financing practices.
"Ancient Estonian literature tells us that poverty makes people do all sorts of things, so if we keep going the way we are, we'll likely continue to see all kinds of schemes. Whether these can be proven or detected is another matter entirely," said Tarand.
In the case of Isamaa and several other recent incidents, a legal entity appears to have provided the party with a service or benefit of monetary value — something that may qualify as a donation. However, under the law, donations from legal entities to political parties are prohibited.
Political journalist Urmas Jaagant said past funding scandals have helped shape the current environment in which parties operate, but the line between what's permitted and what's not is often unclear.
"The intersection of politics and business is the riskiest zone and that's exactly where the greatest scrutiny is needed. It's crucial that the rules of the game are the same for everyone and that we have fair and equal competition of ideas — that's what we expect from politics," Jaagant said.
According to former Chancellor of Justice Allar Jõks, this gray area in party financing is extensive, clearly indicating that the Political Parties Act is outdated.
"The law has remained virtually unchanged for 11 years and we all know how much life has changed in that time — how the methods of party financing have evolved. That brings us to the conclusion that the law absolutely must be updated," Jõks said.
He added that when legislation isn't clear enough, courts are forced to stretch its interpretation more and more. Tarand agrees, saying such ambiguity makes it impossible to apply the law properly. Yet parties have little interest in amending either the Political Parties Act or the Anti-Corruption Act.
"Isamaa has brought its current problems on itself, because over the past ten years, its leaders — most notably Urmas Reinsalu — have held the post of justice minister for six and a half years. They've had every opportunity to initiate changes and improvements to the law. They've known about the vague and insufficient parts of the legislation all along, but they haven't had the will to act," said Tarand.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski, Mari Peegel
