On July 10, the 5th meeting of the Inter-Factional Group of the Parliament of Georgia was held. The meeting approved the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan.

The action plan envisages 18 commitments of the Parliament of Georgia regarding Openness which have to be carried out by the Parliament during the years of 2015-2016.

The member of the Inter-Factional Group, Guguli Maghradze, noted that International and Non-Governmental Organizations put significant contribution in creation of the Action Plan. The Action Plan considers several obligations of the parliament that will improve the transparency and level of participation of citizens.

The Chair of the Board of IDFI – Levan Avalishvili made a brief summary of the working process of the Inter-Factional Group and the Open Parliament Georgia Working Group and underlined the commitments that were suggested by the non-governmental sector to the Parliament of Georgia.

After the acceptance, the action plan was sent to the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia for further approval.

The action plan of the Open Parliament of Georgia was elaborated in the frameworks of “Open Government Partnership”. It should be noted that only several OGP member states have obtained the action plan for the Parliamentary Openness. By approving this plan, Georgia has moved a step forward to become one of the leader states in the openness of the Parliament.

The Inter-factional Group was established by the decree of the Chairman of the Parliament on February 12, 2005. The group consists of 11 MPs: Tamar Kordzaia, Guguli Maghradze, Malkhaz Vakhtangashvili, Giorgi Kakhiani, Giga Bukia, Nino Goguadze, Khatuna Gogorishvili, Vakhtangi Lemojava, Davit Chavchanidze, Gocha Enukidze and Kakhaber Okriashvili.

The Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan was elaborated within the scopes of the project – “Supporting Parliament of Georgia Involvement in Open Government Partnership”. The project is implemented by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) in partnership with the Parliament of Georgia within the joint project of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) “Strengthening the System of Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia”.