The protection of the population needs permanent funding and precise regulation at legislative level.

“As things are, civil defence is not defined by any law in Estonia, and there is no adequately resourced body capable of coordinating, developing and systematically managing it. As long as there is a lack of clarity, obligations and responsibilities in the legislation, there is no guarantee that the constitutional institutions (e.g. the Government of the Republic and the Riigikogu) are ready to take substantive responsibility for the development of the field,” said Hannes Nagel, Head of the Crisis Research Centre.

We also talked about the role of rescuers and police officers in protecting the population, the salaries of rescue workers must rise. The experience of Ukraine has clearly shown how important the role of internal security is in a military crisis. If there are only limited people in internal security, there will be no people in the rear to help the population. And there will be no more rescuers and police officers if their pay does not match their responsibilities. The Crisis Research Centre will continue to support the Estonian Rescue Workers’ Union in their quest for adequate salaries in the field.

Crisis Research Centre is grateful to the Ministry of Interior for the meeting.