Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has refused to promulgate legal amendments that would ban the Tallinn city government from abolishing the city's boroughs this year. Ilves said the bill amending the Gender Equality Act, the Public Service Act and the Labor Contracts Act, to which provisions of the laws on local government organization and local government elections were later added, was adopted in breach of the Riigikogu rules of procedure and Riigikogu internal rules acts. He said the breach was not a minor one or merely formal, but marked a deviation by the parliament's majority from rules of democratic decision-making and good parliamentary practice. He said that while the Riigikogu does have the right under the Constitution to regulate matters related to local government elections with a law, this must be done in a way that is in conformity with the Constitution.
Recent EU statistics have found that Estonia has the widest pay gap between men and women in the EU. Women in Estonia earn on average 30 percent less than men, compared with an average of 17.4 percent across the 27-nation bloc. At 4.4 percent, the gap is smallest in Italy, the Associated Press reported. The EU study said working women are often forced to take less lucrative jobs and positions than men. It also said part-time work and breaks in their careers for family reasons limit career and pay advancement. EU Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said the EU's executive Commission has begun a campaign to raise awareness of the problem.
