The Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, presented, at I reading and under an expedited procedure, a package of amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Georgia, together with accompanying legislative proposals.

According to Papuashvili, the Parliament adopted a new Rules of Procedure last year, introducing numerous important innovations and procedural reforms.

“The new Rules reorganized many parliamentary procedures and contributed to increasing the efficiency of Parliament’s work. Parliament has already completed both its autumn and spring sessions under the new framework. This period allowed us to assess the effectiveness of various procedures in practice and identify issues requiring further clarification or refinement”, - he stated.

Key Proposed Amendments are as explained by the Speaker: changes to the “Taking Note” Procedure; the amendments clarify procedures related to Parliament’s formal acknowledgment of information. Specifically, the term “taking note” will be replaced with alternative terminology of similar meaning. In certain cases, the timing of the legal consequences resulting from Parliament’s acknowledgment of information will be revised or clarified.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, an amendment is being made to Paragraph 2 of Article 82 of the Rules of Procedure, which regulates the declaration of recesses during plenary sessions of Parliament. Under the current provision, the fixed recess period from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. will be abolished, and the Chair of the sitting will decide, as necessary, whether to declare a recess during a plenary session.

As Shalva Papuashvili noted, the authority to decide that a regular plenary session of Parliament be held on another day within the plenary week will be granted to the Parliamentary Bureau.

The amendment also concerns Paragraph 3 of Article 96 of the Rules of Procedure. In particular, the initiator of a draft law will be granted the right to withdraw it up until its adoption at third reading, whereas under the current provision, such withdrawal is permitted only until the draft law is adopted at first reading.

The rules governing the expedited consideration and adoption of draft laws are also being clarified.

Specifically, it is stipulated that if the Parliamentary Bureau has adopted a decision to consider a draft law under an expedited procedure and its consideration has begun at a plenary session, but the draft law is not adopted in all three readings during the same week, its consideration may, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, continue under the expedited procedure during the following plenary week (or weeks).

According to the draft, the provisions regulating the submission of comments on draft laws are being clarified.

It is also stipulated that, after the completion of the third-reading consideration of a legislative package, the projects included in that package that require the same number of votes for adoption will be put to a single vote, unless a Member of Parliament participating in the vote requests, before voting begins, that each project included in the legislative package be voted on separately.

The amendments also affect Article 149 of the Rules of Procedure, which regulates the interpellation procedure.

The Speaker of Parliament highlighted several specific issues related to interpellation:

• In addition to Wednesday and Thursday, Tuesday will also be established as a day for holding interpellations;
• The deadline for submitting a written interpellation question, currently set at 12:00 noon on the Wednesday preceding the week of regular plenary sessions, will be extended until the end of that Wednesday, while the deadline for forwarding the question to its addressee, currently set as that same Wednesday, will be extended until the end of the following day;
• It is clarified that, on a day designated for interpellation, a plenary session may begin with the consideration of other matters and then proceed to the interpellation. It is also clarified that the Parliamentary Bureau will determine the timing of the interpellation in consultation with the author of the written question and its addressee.

As the Speaker noted, the amendments also clarify issues related to the discussion at plenary sessions of certain reports submitted to Parliament.

The amendment further concerns Article 200 of the Rules of Procedure and the procedure for electing a member (trustee) of the Board of Trustees of the Public Broadcaster.

In particular, the procedure for establishing a competitive selection commission for trustee candidates is abolished, and candidates for trustee positions will be nominated at the discretion of the entities authorized to submit nominations.

At the same time, the authority to examine and consider whether a trustee candidate meets the requirements established by law will be vested in the Parliamentary Economic Policy Committee.

The Economic Policy Committee will also conduct a public hearing of trustee candidates and issue a recommendation on whether the candidate should be elected as a trustee or not.

According to the draft, the procedure for hearing the annual report of the President of Georgia is being clarified.

Specifically, it is established that the procedure will be deemed completed upon the conclusion of the President’s address at the plenary session.

In addition, after hearing the President’s annual report, Parliament will be able to continue the plenary session and proceed to the consideration of other matters.

Shalva Papuashvili also informed Members of Parliament about another amendment included in the legislative package, which concerns the Law on Normative Acts.

According to the draft, if a bill is submitted by way of legislative initiative as part of a legislative package, all bills included in that package will be accompanied by a single common explanatory note containing the relevant information concerning the legislative package.

Amendments are also being made to the Organic Law of Georgia on the Public Defender of Georgia and the Law of Georgia on the State Security Service of Georgia.

Shalva Papuashvili shared proposals made by Members of Parliament concerning the possibility of establishing joint working groups by parliamentary committees, as well as proposals to increase the time allocated to the author of an interpellation question and the time allocated for debates following the conclusion of the interpellation procedure.

Parliament unanimously supported the amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Georgia with 79 votes in favour.