The Tallinn City Government wants to amend the Tallinn Statute to clarify and update the regulation of the city's badges of honour.

According to Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart, the draft amendment to the Tallinn Statute passed its first reading in the city government today, and the city government intends to adopt it next Wednesday and send it to the City Council. "Tallinn's Statute is one of the most important documents regulating the work of the city organization. The aim of the amendments is to encourage a situation where the awarding of the Order of the Coat of Arms and the Order of Merit takes even more into account the weighty and long-term contribution of an individual annually will be limited. This means that the City of Tallinn will award one medal and up to ten badges of honour per year. In the past, there was no limit on the number of recipients of badges of honour, and two medals could be awarded per year. We also want to set a minimum age limit of 40 for the medal." 

The new version of the Statute also lays down the grounds for withdrawing medals and the conditions for their return. Thus, the person who has decided to award the City's medal may decide to withdraw it from a person if a court judgment has entered into force convicting the person of an intentional crime. In addition, a decision may be taken to deprive a person of the prize if circumstances come to light prior to the award of which, if known, would not have led to the person being awarded the prize or if the person's subsequent conduct has been so improper as to preclude the award of the prize.

The rules on the withdrawal and return of a badge of merit are similar to those for the withdrawal and return of national badge of merit in the act.
Under the new wording, the awarding of honorary medals and badges and related matters will be organized by the Tallinn City Chancellery instead of the former Tallinn Strategy Centre.