HC/1/96
February 7, 1996/ Nr.6/10680
Dear Mr. High Commissioner
Allow me first to thank you for your letter of 11 December, 1995, which conveyed to me very valuable comments and observations. Please let me also express my regret over the delay in my response.
Since a number of legislative acts concerning issues you raised in your letter were under consideration in Parliament and by the Government, I thought it wise to wait their outcome before responding.
I am pleased to inform you that the Estonian Government decided to considerably enlarge the categories of people eligible to receive an alien's passport. People who posses permanent registration in the former Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic have a right to a residence permit, while those who do not have a valid passport or a similar document may apply for an alien's passport. I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your active support in encouraging those OSCE member states which still have not recognised the alien's passport to do so as soon as possible.
The amendment to the Law on Public Service provides a postponement of the deadline from which civil servants who are not Estonian citizens cannot be employed by the State. This additional year should be enough for those people to pass required procedures for naturalisation.
In your letter you also touched upon the citizenship examination concerning the Constitution and the Estonian language which you have found to be far too difficult.
In regard to the Estonian language test, I'm afraid you have been provided with out-of-date information. Indeed, the governmental regulation concerning levels of professional language proficiency, adopted in 1992, set standards based on the required knowledge of a fixed number of words. Until the adoption of the new law on Citizenship this regulation was also basis for naturalisation tests.
Since April 1st, 1995 the language tests are conducted strictly according to the standards set forth in paragraph 8 of the new Law. This paragraph was worked out by linguists who included experts from leading universities throughout Western Europe. While the previous regulation represented a rather mechanical approach to the knowledge of a language, the very idea of the Estonian language test within the new Citizenship Law is completely different. It expects an individual to be prepared to comprehend a spoken or written message and to be able to pass it on to other individuals. It places priority on the content of the other message, while the art of expression is a matter of considerably lesser importance.
The Estonian Language Department works in close co-operation with various international experts to develop examination texts along the lines of widely recognised standards. In the beginning of January a seminar was held under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The seminar, entitled "Expert Advice Concerning Current Materials and Procedures for Testing and Certification," was lead by Mr. Dave Allen, an expert of UCLES at Cambridge University. He will soon submit an official report to the Council of Europe. I believe that the closer co-operation between OSCE and the Council of Europe would only strengthen the fruits born.
As far as the examination on the Constitution is concerned, I have also noted the opinion, most often expressed in the Russian press, that some of the questions are difficult to answer for a person lacking a university degree. I believe that these requirements are, in reality, not so severe. Candidates are provided with texts of the Constitution and the Citizenship Law during exams. Presuming that a person's language ability enables him/her to understand the question, locating the correct passage should not reasonably be above the reach of any literate individual. I have been informed that the percentage of those who pass these exams is very high, and, according to activity report no 93 of the OSCE Mission in Estonia, "... passing both language and legal exam is possible for everybody with some preparation."
However, there have been proposals to exempt elderly people from the legal exam. I find this worthy of further consideration.
I hope, Mr. High Commissioner, that you have found my reply satisfactory, for it indicates that all of the suggestions you proposed in your last letter have already been implemented. Allow me to assure you of the highest appreciation I attach to our correspondence.
Yours sincerely,
Siim Kallas
