President Alar Karis did not approve two laws. These laws were not in line with the Estonian Constitution. One of these laws was the Churches and Congregations Act. The president did not approve this law for the second time. The Riigikogu must now decide whether to amend the laws or not. If the laws remain unchanged, the president may turn to the Supreme Court.
The president said that both laws have good intentions. But currently, these laws provide too many opportunities for interpretation. This may lead to many legal disputes. The Riigikogu had already amended the Churches and Congregations Act once. But the president believes that this is not enough. Such a law may restrict people's freedom of religion too much.
The Riigikogu adopted this law for the first time on April 9th. Nevertheless, the president left it unpublished on April 24th. The second law not approved by the president was the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act. The president said that in the case of automated data processing, it is very important to protect people's personal data.
This law would give the Financial Intelligence Unit the right to create a unified database. This database would be compiled from 11 national registers. The data would be anonymous, but when identifying money laundering patterns, this data could be personalized. President Karis believes that this law restricts people's rights too much. Rights should not be limited to simplify the work of a government agency or reduce costs.