Georgian Parliament Moves Forward on Institutional Reforms

The Parliament of Georgia presented a new draft of its Rules of Procedure to the public, marking a new step in implementing parliamentary reform. 

The draft was presented on 18 June 2018, at an even which brought together representatives of Parliament, civil society, international, and donor organizations.

Tamar Chugoshvili, First Vice-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, addressed the participants at an opening session. This was followed by remarks from Dorota Dlouchy-Suliga, Head of Political, Press and Information Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia; and Gigi Bregadze, Democratic Governance Team Leader of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Georgia.

The discussion focused on the changes introduced in the course of the ongoing reform which aims to streamline the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, eliminate legislative gaps and introduce effective law-making and oversight mechanisms for Parliament to establish a stronger role in the parliamentary system of governance – a major change achieved as a result of recent amendments to the Constitution of Georgia.

The Rules of Procedure is a guiding document, serving as the basis for parliamentary activity. It describes constitutional prerogatives of Parliament, and procedures for the regular work of parliamentary committees, factions, councils and commissions. The document defines the rules for debating and adopting laws and describes the Parliament’s relations with the Government.

The new draft of the Rules of Procedure was prepared by the Parliament of Georgia, with assistance from the European Union (EU) and UNDP, under their larger initiative to support parliamentary democracy in Georgia. 

The document was initiated by Parliament on May 31, 2018, and is expected to be adopted at the fall session of the Parliament of Georgia.

Source: Press Release, UNDP