The Consultative Group of the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Open and Transparent Governance held a workshop on April 11. The group presented and discussed the amendments to the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure required for fulfilling the commitments of the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan.

The opening speakers were:

1. Sophie Huet-Guerriche – program manager of the EU Delegation to Georgia; 
2. Gigi Bregadze – head of the Democratic Governance Team at UNDP Tbilisi Office; 
3. Levan Avalishvili – board chairman of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI).

The speakers thanked the Consultative Group for its active involvement in the project and emphasized the importance of its continuation. Levan Avalishvili stressed the strategic importance of implementing the Open Parliament Action Plan in 2016 and called on the participants to prepare for the April 25-26 meeting of the Consultative Group and the Parliamentary Council.

The workshop continued with the presentation on the project of amendments to the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure by IDFI’s Parliamentary Secretary Davit Maisuradze. The amendments are aimed at fulfilling the following action plan commitments initiated by IDFI (please, see the action plan).

Other topics of discussion included:

• Draft version of the MP Ethics Code developed by NDI;
• State Concept for the Development of Civil Society Organizations presented by the Civil Society Institute;
• Project of amendments to the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure developed by the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association;
• Concepts presented by Transparency International Georgia.

The Consultative Group is composed of non-governmental and international organizations and is tasked with facilitating the work of the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Open and Transparent Governance. IDFI is currently implementing a UNDP and EU funded project titled Supporting the Parliament of Georgia in Implementation of the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan, which aims to assist the Parliamentary Council in implementing the Open Parliament Action Plan. IDFI coordinates the activities of the Council and its Consultative Group.