Parliament rejects energy committee

  • 2007-09-13
  • From wire reports
TALLINN - The Estonian parliament dumped a proposal by the opposition Greens to set up an ad hoc committee to deal with the topics of fuel and energy.

The proposal to reject the bill was approved with votes 42 to 27, with one abstention, Sep. 12.

The bill was opposed by the constitutional committee, which said the Greens had failed to give convincing arguments why such a committee should be created.

The chairman of the committee, Reform Party MP Vaino Linde, said the committee on the economy was fully competent to deal with the problems that under the bill would have been delegated to the new committee.

The bill was initially due to be handled by lawmakers at an extraordinary session of the parliament on Aug. 13, which ended because of a lack of quorum before any substantive discussion could take place.

The Greens claim that a new body is needed to look into Estonia's long-term energy strategy and electricity supply. They believe that by expressing willingness to join in nuclear power plant projects in Lithuania and Finland, the government may be going beyond the bounds of its remit as there is at present no solid commitment to nuclear power in agreed plans.