Parliament Speaker highlights “constructive” meeting on implementation of EU accession talks conditions
Photo: The Parliament of Georgia
Georgia's Parliament on Friday engaged in constructive discussions regarding the nine steps outlined by the European Commission as prerequisites for initiating accession talks with the country.
“Our meeting today lasted over seven hours and I am glad indeed for having a constructive dialogue; one of the three issues concerning the common courts was postponed for the next meeting, which hopefully will be held within the shortest period”, Papuashvili said.
Papuashvili noted that 8 matters have been discussed concerning the Special Investigation Service and the Personal Data Protection Service, and consent was achieved on all of them.
“In fact, we have consent on most of the issues mostly concerning the operation of the Special Investigation Service, Personal Data Protection Service and the Anti-Corruption Bureau; the only issue that fell subject to the objection of the opposition is that a qualified majority shall elect the certain officials in the Parliament”, the Speaker noted.
He added that 17 matters were discussed concerning the Anti-Corruption Bureau, on 15 of which the agreement was achieved.
“The issue that the part of the opposition urges not to agree with is that they want the Heads of the Special Investigation Service, Personal Data Protection Service and the Anti-Corruption Bureau to be elected by a qualified majority in the Parliament. A qualified majority remains a never-ending topic of speculation of the opposition. Our position in this regard is clear. In fact, a qualified majority is a troubling practice; it was revealed in the case of the Central Election Commission as well. We witness a real attempt to wrap a qualified majority as a consensus mechanism, while actually for the opposition it is an instrument to obstruct decision-making and naturally, no consent can be achieved on this certain issue”, he continued.
As he noted, the opposition raised the issue of granting the investigative function to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is not a direct recommendation of the Venice Commission.
“We do not consider it expedient to further scatter the investigative functions, however, we offer to introduce the administrative proceeding, which will be the process of the inquiry type as a true necessity for the Anti-Corruption Bureau for its efficiency in inquiring about the documents and holding surveys. The achievement on this issue also was achieved regarding it as an effective instrument. At the same time, we agreed to equip the Head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau with immunity and discussed the improvement of the protection of the whistle-blowers and the declaration system”, he concluded.
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