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President-elect Ülle Madise wants the National Defense Council to meet more regularly, raising questions about how she will use the presidency's largely symbolic role in defense policy.
The next elected president of the Republic of Estonia, Ülle Madise, has already announced one change she wants to make to the presidency: convening the National Defense Council more regularly and conducting its work more systematically.
The National Defense Council has existed as an advisory body to the head of state, first the state elder and later the president, since 1933. It was also included in the 1992 Constitution.
Records of the Constitutional Assembly from more than three decades ago show a fundamental debate over who should direct national defense. One central question was to whom the commander of the Defense Forces should report and how power should be balanced among the president, the government and the Riigikogu. One option under discussion would have made the commander answerable to a national defense council formed by the Riigikogu.
The Constitution as adopted left the commander's chain of command unclear. Although executive power belonged to the government, the Riigikogu appointed the commander on the president's proposal.
Historian Hellar Lill has attributed that vague arrangement to fears that one of Estonia's political leaders at the time might have undemocratic ambitions. Liia Hänni, a member of the Constitutional Assembly, has said something similar.
The ambiguity later caused problems. Instead of the hoped-for balance, the 1990s and 2000s brought disputes over defense and the limits of officials' authority.
A 2011 constitutional amendment removed the provision under which the Riigikogu appointed the commander of the Defense Forces on the president's proposal. The power to make the appointment was assigned by law to the government.
There has, admittedly, been a small but significant change since then. An amendment taking effect October 1 requires a candidate for commander to appear before the full Riigikogu before appointment and its National Defense Committee must give binding consent to the government. Only then can the government appoint the commander on the defense minister's proposal.
The change arose less from a carefully considered redesign of the constitutional system than from a political compromise in the Riigikogu: To pass the crisis management and national defense law, the government needed to overcome the National Defense Committee's opposition.
President-elect Ülle Madise wants the National Defense Council to meet more regularly, raising questions about how she will use the presidency's largely symbolic role in defense policy.