Along with that neither Mr. Jürgen Ligi nor Mr. Mart Helme consider the conclusions of the
Commission grounded. On his Facebook page Mr. Ligi wrote that “making reports for their
own sake and reprimanding random people are the best conditions for racism and
xenophobia”. Mr. Helme regards the report as highly hypocritical because, in his opinion,
authors of the report urge to start discriminating politicians with whom they disagree.
4. The legislation on the administrative misdeeds is a part of Estonian Criminal Law.
Given this ICHR believes it is important to put emphasize on the language
requirements on the job market as non-compliance with them leads to the
administrative liability in the form of fine.
The language requirements on the job market are often excessive and may result in
discrimination of Russian-speaking population. Moreover, these requirements obviously
hamper EU free movement of workers, therefore, may contradict EU law. The system of
testing the command of language is also questionable. Numerous international experts
note that the requirement of Estonian language proficiency should be compatible with the
legitimate aim pursued.
The Language Inspectorate is an authority that controls the observance of language
requirements and tests language proficiency. According to the reports for the year 2014,
127 proceedings on misdeed were initiated due to non-adherence to the language
requirements. The amount of fines reached 7723 Euro. Apart from that, the sum of 8500
Euro was charged as a penalty payment (sunniraha).
The industries continuously and regularly checked by the Language Inspectorate include
education, and precisely, the control of Estonian language proficiency of subject teachers
in Russian schools. Thus, 1131 teachers were tested and 938 of them failed in 2014. Most
of the schools that were checked by the Language Inspectorate are situated in the regions
densely populated by Russian-speaking population. For instance, in the town of Narva in
North-Eastern Estonia, where Russian-speaking population constitutes 96% and of the
rest 4% only half speak Estonian fluently, Estonian language proficiency of teachers of
Russian schools and gymnasiums as well as members of the Narva City assembly is
constantly tested.
Recently taxi drivers became another professional group under the strict language control.
Thus, taxi drivers of Narva expressed their disagreement with the applicable language
requirements and submitted to the European Parliament their petition on November 17,
2015. Taxi drivers of Narva are obliged to know Estonian at B1 level, which is a ridiculous
obligation for fully Russian-speaking town. 434 persons – not only taxi drivers but also
other worried citizens of Narva who are using cheap but qualitative taxi services, signed
the petition. Authors of the petition request the European Parliament to influence Estonian
authorities with the aim to stop violations of Estonian and EU laws and get the language
requirements re-considered.