Regulation No. 26 of the Government of the Republic of 29 January 2004
(RT1 I 2004, 6, 39),
entered into force 5 February 2004.
This Regulation is established on the basis of subsection 8 (2) of the Strategic Goods Act (RT I 2004, 2, 7).
Chapter 1
Formation of Strategic Goods Commission
§ 1. Membership of Strategic Goods Commission
(1) The Strategic Goods Commission (hereinafter commission) shall have seven members, including the chairman. The chairman of the commission shall be the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the members of the commission shall include representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Security Police Board, the Police Board and the Tax and Customs Board.
(2) Each member of the commission may be appointed one alternate member.
(3) The chairman, members and alternate members of the commission shall be appointed without a specific term.
(4) The secretary to the commission shall be appointed, by a directive of the chairman of the commission, from among the officials of the structural unit which services the commission.
§ 2. Substitution for chairman and members of commission
(1) If the chairman of the commission is unable to participate in the work of the commission, the chairman shall appoint, by a directive, the member of the commission representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereinafter substitute for chairman) to substitute for him or her.
(2) If a member of the commission is unable to participate in the work of the commission, the alternate member appointed to him or her shall substitute for the member.
§ 3. Access permit to state secrets
The members, substitute members and the secretary of the commission shall hold an access permit to state secrets classified as "secret”, or a higher classification.
Chapter 2
Functions and Rights of Commission
§ 4. Functions of commission
The commission shall perform the following functions:
1) issues, extends and revokes Individual Import Licences, Export Licences and Transit Permissions for strategic goods (hereinafter licences);
2) issues and revokes General Export Authorisation User Certificate (hereinafter certificates);
3) issues and revokes International Import Certificates, End-Use Certificates and Delivery Verification Certificates (hereinafter end-use control documents);
4) decides on entry of persons in the state register of brokers of military goods (hereinafter register), and deletion of persons from the register;
5) co-operates with relevant authorities of foreign states and international organisations for export control;
6) performs other functions assigned to the commission by law, legislation or international agreement.
§ 5. Rights of commission
In order to perform its duties, the commission has the right to:
1) receive documents and information necessary for the performance of its functions from persons and agencies;
2) involve representatives of administrative agencies and other specialists in the performance of its functions;
3) issue, within the limits of its competence, precepts concerning the terms of import, export and transit of, services related to and end use of strategic goods, and concerning the return of documents;
4) form opinions and inform the holder or owner of the goods or the person who submitted the customs declaration thereof, if the goods have the characteristics of strategic goods;
5) request information on the carriage of strategic goods across the customs frontier and provision of services related to military goods from supervisory agencies;
6) request information on the import and end-use control of strategic goods from supervisory agencies;
7) request information on offences relating to strategic goods from supervisory agencies;
8) use other rights granted thereto by law, other legislation or international agreement.
Chapter 3
Working Procedures of Commission
§ 6. Work format of commission
(1) The work format of the commission shall be a meeting. The meetings of the commission shall be closed.
(2) The chairman of the commission shall call a meeting of the commission when necessary and shall give notice to the members of the commission thereof at least five days in advance. The material to be discussed at a meeting of the commission shall be appended to the notice calling a meeting.
(3) The commission has a quorum if the chairman or substitute for the chairman and at least five members of the commission participate in a meeting.
(4) The secretary to the commission, representatives of other administrative agencies and other specialists with no right to vote shall participate in a meeting.
(5) At the discretion of the chairman, a meeting may be held in a virtual form with the aid of information technology.
§ 7. Adoption of commission resolutions
(1) The commission adopts a resolution after hearing the opinions of all members. A resolution shall be adopted by consensus of the members present at the meeting of the commission.
(2) If consensus is not reached, a decision shall be adopted by a majority of votes in favour after hearing the additional reasons presented by the members. Upon equal division of votes, the vote of the chairman or the substitute for the chairman of the commission prevails.
(3) A member of the commission who has direct or indirect interest in a request to be heard by the commission is required to inform the commission of such interest and refrain from voting in the matter.
§ 8. Minutes of commission meetings
(1) Minutes of commission meetings shall be taken.
(2) The minutes shall be signed by the chairman or the substitute for the chairman of the commission, and the recording secretary.
(3) The text of the minutes shall enable restoration of the process of deliberation of a matter. The minutes shall set out:
- the place and date of the meeting and the number of the minutes;
- members of the commission present and absent;
- representatives of other administrative agencies and other specialists involved in the work of the commission;
- the chair and secretary of the meeting;
- agenda;
- course of deliberation;
- results of voting;
- resolution.
(4) The minutes shall be prepared within three working days after the meeting of the commission.
(5) The minutes shall be preserved at the structural unit servicing the commission.
(6) If a state secret is discussed at a meeting, the minutes of the session or a part thereof shall be classified pursuant to the procedure provided by the State Secrets Act (RT I 1999, 16, 271; 82, 752; 2001, 7, 17; 93, 565; 100, 643; 2002, 53, 336; 57, 354; 63, 387; 2003, 13, 67; 23, 147; 2004, 2, 7) and legislation established on the basis thereof.
§ 9. Competence of chairman of commission
(1) The chairman shall:
- direct the work of the commission;
- call meetings of the commission and determine the meeting agendae;
- chair meetings of the commission;
- sign commission resolutions, precepts, reports and other documents prepared by the commission;
- hold and use the seal of the commission;
- represent the commission in governmental authorities and the Government of the Republic;
- invite persons who are not members to participate in the work of the commission;
(2) The chairman of a commission shall issue directives in deciding matters within his or her competence.
(3) In the cases provided in subsection 2 (1), the substitute for the chairman has the competence provided in subsections (1) and (2).
§ 10. Competence and duties of commission members
(1) A member of the commission shall present his or her reasoned opinion on the issue of or refusal to issue licences, certificates and end-use control documents based on information in the possession of the authority whom the member represents.
(2) A member of the commission has the right to make enquiries necessary to obtain information.
(3) The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall:
- organise, on the basis of commission resolutions, the issue of licences, certificates and end-use control documents, and entry in the register of persons;
- communicate with competent authorities of foreign states and international organisations for export control, initiate consultations and submit inquiries;
- prepare reports on the import, export and transit of strategic goods for international organisations and agencies which exercise supervision over the performance of international agreements, if Estonia has assumed such obligation.
§ 11. Competence and duties of secretary to commission The secretary to the commission shall:
- organise the administration and correspondence of the commission;
- receive applications for issue of licences, certificates and end-use control documents, applications for entry in the register and appended documents and, where necessary, call attention to deficiencies in an application;
- prepare the material to be discussed at a meeting;
- notify the members of the commission of the convention, the place and agenda of a meeting and provide the members with the material to be discussed at the meeting;
- participate in the meetings of the commission;
- prepare and sign the minutes of commission meetings;
- supplement the database of Individual Import Licences, Export Licences, Transit Permissions, General Export Authorisation User Certificates and end-use control documents relating to strategic goods.
§ 12. Coverage of expenditure Expenditure of the commission is covered from the state budget from the budget line of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
§ 13. Seal and blank document form of commission
(1) The commission has a circular seal of a diameter of 35 mm with the small national coat of arms in the centre and the words “STRATEEGILISE KAUBA KOMISJON COMMISSION OF STRATEGIC GOODS” circling the edge of the seal.
(2) The commission uses its own blank document form bearing the small national coat of arms.
§ 14. Reporting
The commission shall submit an annual report to the Government of the Republic which shall set out the following information:
- the number of issued licences, certificates and end-use control documents;
- number of persons entered in the register;
- amount and value of goods imported, exported or transited on the basis of licences, and the countries of origin and destination of the goods;
- number of refusals to issue licences, certificates and end-use documents and to enter persons in the register, and a review of the reasons for the refusals;
- statistics relating to end-use control and subsequent verification of use of licences;
- statistics relating to offences relating to strategic goods and violations of international sanctions;
- review of international events and developments in the area of import, export and transit control of strategic goods;
- state plans to improve control.
Chapter 4
Implementing Provisions
§ 15. Repeal of Regulation
Government of the Republic Regulation no. 280 of 28 September 1999 “Formation of Strategic Goods Import, Export and Transit Control Commission and Approval of Statutes thereof” (RT I 1999, 72, 693; 2001, 93, 573; 2003, 55, 371; 61, 404) is repealed.
§ 16. Entry into force of Regulation
This Regulation enters into force on 5 February 2004.
1 RT = Riigi Teataja = State Gazette
