Inquiry regarding the mobile application eesti.ee (no 674)
Session: 15th Riigikogu, 5th session, plenary session
Date: 2025-01-27 18:40
Participating Politicians:
Total Speeches: 18
Membership: 15
Agenda Duration: 30m
AI Summaries: 18/18 Speeches (100.0%)
Analysis: Structured Analysis
Politicians Speaking Time
Politicians
Analysis
Summary
This agenda item focused on the question submitted last year by members of the Riigikogu – Andrei Korobeinik, Aleksandr Tšaplõgin, Aleksei Jevgrafov, Lauri Laats, Vladimir Arhipov, and Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart – regarding the mobile application eesti.ee. The content of the question primarily covered the progress of the application’s development work, the budget, the selection of procurements and partners, the involvement of end users, and the results of usability testing. Plans for the future development of the application were also addressed, including the expansion of the concept of a personalized state, as well as security and accessibility issues. During the meeting, both the Minister of the Interior, and the Minister of Justice and Digital Transformation, Liisa-Ly Pakosta, along with the question presenter and several opposition members, provided questions, criticism, and suggestions for improving the application’s quality and ensuring the transparency of procurements.
The topics covered technical and legal aspects: a two-phase structure for the development work, 800,000 euros for development, 36,000 euros for security testing, 11,000 euros for focus group testing, and an additional accessibility audit; totaling 850,000 euros. The pilot project carried out within the framework of cooperation with Ukraine and its estimated impact were also highlighted, and the discussion considered how the state app and other services could be personalized and proactively directed to the user. Finally, the discussion sparked debate regarding user ratings of the application, and criticism of its design, ease of use, and name selection, followed by the presentation of arguments and suggestions for further discussion and the implementation of improvements.
Decisions Made 1
The third agenda item was removed from the agenda.
Most Active Speaker
Andrei Korobeinik (presenter of the proposal) is the most active speaker in the session. His role is to present the proposal (representing Estonia's upcoming political proposal), and he will later focus the discussions on key questions, criticism, and the future construction of the application. His position is outside the direct governmental group, neither “left” nor “right,” rather as a representative of the opposition (with other collegial positions).
Esimees Lauri Hussar
AI Summary
During today's second item on the agenda, Lauri Laats has his hand raised, and a question is raised about the procedure for conducting the meeting.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
He draws attention to the minister's warning that politicians will not start writing textbooks, and refers to Mart Laar, who has written a history textbook, and asks what to do with it.
Esimees Lauri Hussar
AI Summary
The chair of the meeting, Lauri Hussar, said that this is not a procedural question, and directed attention to the second item on the agenda regarding the parliamentary inquiry submitted on December 11 last year about the mobile application eesti.ee, which is presented by his colleague Andrei Korobeinik.
Andrei Korobeinik
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Andrei Korobeinik said that the Estonian state has stagnated and must move toward a citizen-centric state, creating better digital services and greater AI funding, and he asked the minister for a vision and options for cost-cutting to restore the digital state's reputation.
Esimees Lauri Hussar
AI Summary
Speaker Lauri Hussar thanked and invited Liisa-Ly Pakosta, the Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, to respond to the interpellation on the Riigikogu floor.
Justiits- ja digiminister Liisa-Ly Pakosta
AI Summary
Justice and Digital Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta stressed that the ambition of Estonia's digital state services must be increased and moved forward more quickly, and before the Parliament she presented an overview of the development and testing process of the eesti.ee mobile application, the budget and procurements, the cooperation with Ukraine, and future plans to personalize the state app, to add proactive notifications and to incorporate the entrepreneurs' perspective, as well as improvements in accessibility and the reform of state IT purchases and independent auditing being placed on the table for consideration.
Esimees Lauri Hussar
AI Summary
The Speaker thanks the minister and announces that there are questions for him as well, and invites Lauri Laats to speak.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats emphasizes that the best feedback still comes from users' ratings on the App Store and Android; he reads out one critical comment and asks the minister how he is satisfied with the given work and what the market feedback says, while mentioning an 800,000-euro budget for the public procurement.
Justiits- ja digiminister Liisa-Ly Pakosta
AI Summary
They acknowledged that low-contrast design makes it harder for people whose vision isn't top-notch to follow along, agreed with the need to improve user-friendliness, and stated that there should be a separate IT cost code in the state budget so that costs could be aggregated and comparable with the private sector, which is currently not possible, and for this application as well, comparability has not been established.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chair invites Andrei Korobeinik to speak.
Andrei Korobeinik
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
In the presentation, Korobeinik noted that the application had received an average rating of 2.6/5 and that there are many comments noting that it does not launch, while at the same time he asked about cooperation with Ukraine, compared the design to "Dijas," and asked why a better design has not been brought into the app and why the result of the cooperation is not reflected in the app’s appearance.
Justiits- ja digiminister Liisa-Ly Pakosta
AI Summary
Justice and Digital Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta said that the criticism of the state app is justified, because the required functions and identity‑verifying documents cannot be launched before changes to the law, but she praised Ukraine's Diia design and branding and its name, and called for finding good names for Estonia's state app, noting at the same time that Ukraine has invested more in marketing and design, and we still have a long way to go in this area.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The deputy speaker Arvo Aller invites Vladimir Arhipov to speak.
Vladimir Arhipov
Profiling Fraktsiooni mittekuuluvad Riigikogu liikmedAI Summary
Vladimir Arhipov asked a security-related question about whether there have been frauds carried out through the app, whether there is data on this, and whether the Ministry of the Interior has cooperated with him to curb fraud.
Justiits- ja digiminister Liisa-Ly Pakosta
AI Summary
The security of the specific application complies with the Estonian Information System Authority's cybersecurity requirements, and I have no information that there has been any successful attack against it; with regard to fraud, the cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior is broad-based, and the answer to the question is yes.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
He thanks and informs that there are no questions, and opens negotiations as the representative of the inquirers, Andrei Korobeinik.
Andrei Korobeinik
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Andrei Korobeinik said that almost one million euros were spent on a Ukraine cooperation project with poor results, and the state must change its attitude, create a real personal state and a strong product owner, and ensure that the current approach provides people-oriented services.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The deputy chair Arvo Aller declared the negotiations closed, noting that the discussion of the second agenda item had been exhausted and that the parliamentary questions had been answered, and that the third agenda item had been removed from the agenda.