The state wants to expand the equality commissioner’s role to better protect people from discrimination, but stakeholders worry there’s no funding in place.

The draft amendment to the Equal Treatment Act has drawn extensive feedback during its consultation round. While stakeholders generally welcome the initiative — prompted by the need to implement a European directive — many also see significant concerns.

Equality Commissioner Christian Veske noted that while the responsibilities are expanding, no funding has been allocated to support them.

“When new responsibilities are added, there must also be financing — otherwise, it’s simply not possible to fulfill them. Especially since the tasks introduced by this bill require entirely new competencies. The commissioner’s office would be granted the right to represent victims of discrimination in court and resolve disputes by issuing binding opinions based on mutual agreement. These are all new areas of expertise that we still need to build within our office,” Veske said.

Reet Laja, head of the Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Center, agreed that the lack of funding is a concern, but welcomed the inclusion of the concept of intersectional discrimination in the legislation.

“This means that it would be possible to take into account situations where a person is discriminated against based on multiple characteristics at once. For example, someone might be from a different ethnic background and also a woman or a woman with disabilities — or a man, for that matter. Up until now, our legislation hasn’t adequately addressed intersectional discrimination,” Laja explained.

Mait Palts, director general of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the bill’s impact assessment should be expanded to include a realistic estimate of the costs and administrative burden it would place on businesses. Another point of concern, he said, was the proposal to expand the commissioner’s investigative powers.

“Everyone understands that the commissioner needs a certain level of authority to review complaints and investigate information that comes to their attention. But if those powers, as outlined in the bill, begin to resemble investigative authority typically held by the police or other law enforcement bodies, then from our perspective that warrants additional analysis, both in terms of legal clarity and constitutional compatibility,” Palts said.

Ulla Saar, deputy secretary general for labor and equality policy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, said the issue of funding would be addressed during the state budget strategy process and that other options remain on the table.

“For example, the ministry could allocate funds from its own budget, or the commissioner could continue applying for funding from various EU or Norwegian sources, as has been done in past years to support broader initiatives. There are several alternatives,” Saar said.

The ministry will begin analyzing the feedback from the consultation round in the new year.

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