Photo: Raul Mehe
Liisa-Li Pakosta will take up the position of Minister of Justice and Digital Development in the new government. DV asked Pakosta what she plans to do in this position and why she chose this particular position.
What do you plan to do as minister?
I am not a minister, but a candidate for minister. In order for me to be appointed, the prime minister must receive a mandate from the Riigikogu, and the president must approve the appointment. This will not happen before Tuesday.
But still?
First of all, I plan to educate myself about what was done in the ministry before and what will happen next. My main goal is to stand for freedom, i.e. to make sure that the state does not interfere too much in people’s lives. I have fought a lot against bureaucracy in the past, so I intend to do it with all my might now.
What laws, where there is currently too much bureaucracy, need to be changed?
We are not talking about canceling entire laws, it works differently. We take one specific regulation and ask ourselves: “Is it reasonable at all?” Plus, the coalition agreement has a new clause that says that for every new regulation that we introduce, at least one old one must be removed. So, we will work according to the principle: “Regulate as little as possible, and give people and entrepreneurs as much freedom as possible.”
The new coalition plans to raise income tax and VAT to 24% and even introduce a profit tax. How will these new regulations help breathe new life into our entrepreneurs?
No way. But they will help avoid a situation where the enemy seizes our entire territory and the businesses cease to exist. So, consider these measures as an insurance premium. We make a small insurance premium to avoid much, much greater damage in the future. Like what we saw in Bucha.
Margus Tsakhkna said at a press conference: “Liisa Pakosta will eliminate the bureaucracy that the European Union is handing down to us.” What did he mean?
Not exactly: he said that I had done this before. And indeed: as the head of the Riigikogu European Union Affairs Committee, I made sure that Estonia did not adopt EU regulations excessively. That the people of our country were not burdened with more obligations than required by the intra-European agreements.
That is, so that Estonia would not be the “first student”?
You could say that. Unfortunately, we have been overzealous in implementing EU requirements lately. We have implemented more and in a stricter version than the EU required. And all these regulations require money, which we do not want to take from taxpayers.
Why did you choose the Ministry of Justice for yourself?
The process of becoming a minister does not involve sitting down and choosing which ministry would be the most wonderful for you. Estonia 200 offered me this post, and I think they did so for several reasons. Firstly, I have worked in law and have the relevant education. Secondly, I value the reduction of bureaucracy as such. And the protection of basic rights in the IT sector is a value very close to my heart.
By the way, why was IT transferred under the Ministry of Justice? Previously, it was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy.
Because in the context of the lightning-fast development of IT, the protection of basic human rights comes to the fore. Protection in such a way that it does not hinder innovation. So that there are both innovations and basic rights.
Let me give you a simple example: let’s say there’s a drone flying near your house. Today, we don’t know whether that drone has the right to fly there, whether it’s controlled by artificial intelligence, and if so, what regulates it. That’s why it’s important that technology and basic rights go hand in hand. This will allow us to further develop our Tiger Leap.
By the way, does the tiger still jump? I heard the opinion that our IT is supposedly no longer the best in the world. The Internet has become slow and expensive, and all our innovations are long gone.
I think that everything is not so sad, but we certainly need innovations. That is why we want to combine them with human rights – this will allow the sector to grow much faster. Otherwise, as usually happens: the IT sector comes up with something, and then stumbles upon legal obstacles. As a result, things do not move forward, and human rights are not particularly protected.
You mentioned AI. Do you plan to work on it?
Of course: this is written into the coalition agreement.
Let me give you a simple example: I go into a retail chain (I won’t name it), the first to introduce a remote control that lets you put groceries in your basket. I go there with small children and put groceries for everyone: five loaves of bread, 15 liters of milk, etc. I go to the self-service checkout. The children are languishing, waiting for it all to be over. And suddenly – “Ta-daa!” – please go through the purchase control. Okay, I go through.
I come next time – again children, again a giant basket and many liters of milk – I get checked again! But I was checked last time! “No, our selection is completely random.” I come for the third time – again check! That doesn’t happen – three times out of three. “No, the selection is random.” I write to the management: “Something is not working properly.” No, they say, everything is fine. I come for the fourth time – again the same story. I write this time: “This is discrimination based on family background!” And then they admitted: yes, the algorithm is set up so that if a customer has an unusual basket, he always gets checked. And when you have five children, of course, the basket will be unusual! In the end, they changed the algorithm.
But isn’t this interference in the activities of private business? The company has the right to check who it wants and how it wants. And you as a customer have the right not to go to this store and prefer another one.
At first glance, it may seem that this is indeed the case. But our goal is not to make people’s lives worse, more inconvenient, or worse, to take away their basic rights. In any case, an enterprise has no right to discriminate – it will pay a fine for this. Basic human rights are not a trifle, and they must go hand in hand with innovation. The state should not be an obstacle to innovation, but actively offer solutions that take into account the interests of everyone.
But will you have the authority to do so? The Eesti 200 party has often been accused of “surrendering” its election promises and values and becoming “subordinate” to the Reform Party.
I thought these accusations were groundless before. There is a coalition, there are coalition partners, and work is being done with them. We agree with some of the things that are important to the Social Democrats and the Reform Party, and they agree with some of the things that are important to us – that is how coalitions are formed. And all these attacks… When a new party comes to the forefront, there is a great desire to remove it from the political landscape. So all these attacks were not exactly expected, but quite natural.
And the last question: what did your predecessors do wrong, and what do you plan to do differently?
Madis Timson did nothing wrong – on the contrary, he was a very good minister. I can only praise him for his work, he was a very good partner. An attentive listener, thinks with you. A very, very good minister. He lost this post only because the ministerial portfolio was transferred from the reformists to the Eesti 200 party.
Source: www.dv.ee
