On December 30th, 2015, in accordance with the #195/3 Order of the Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia, the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Open and Transparent Governance was established. Primary functions of the Parliamentary Council will be ensuring parliamentary openness, elaborating the Open Parliament Action Plans within the scopes of Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGP) and monitoring their implementation process.
The initiative of establishment of the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Open and Transparent Governance belongs to the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). It should be noted that IDFI was supporting the work of the Inter-Factional Group and the Open Parliament Working Group within the scopes of the program “Supporting Involvement of the Parliament of Georgia in Open Government Partnership” which was funded by the UNDP and the EU and was implemented with cooperation of the Parliament of Georgia. Within the framework of the above-mentioned project, Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan 2015-2016 was elaborated by the Inter-Factional Group of the Parliament of Georgia and the Open Parliament Working Group and it was adopted by the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia on July 17th, 2015.
IDFI has actively advocated creation of the Parliamentary Council which was a commitment laid out in the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan 2015-2016. Establishment of the Parliamentary Council is the first commitment of the Action Plan implemented by the Parliament of Georgia. Parliamentary Council will ensure the coordination of the implementation process of the commitments of the Action Plan.
The participation in the Parliamentary Council will be based on the inter-factional principles. At the same time, the Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia is also the member of the Parliamentary Council.
The legal base for establishing the Parliamentary Council was enacted in the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure on December 18th, 2015, when the Parliament of Georgia adopted the amendments to the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure on the third hearing. Particularly, according to the amendment (Article 107 (23) (the number correlates with the Georgian alphabet)) the Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia is obliged to create Parliamentary Council in order to ensure transparency of the legislative activities, and coordinative and effective management of the issues related to openness of the Parliament. Provision and composition of the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Open and Transparent Governance is regulated by the order of the Chairperson of the Parliament (Rules of procedure of the Parliament of Georgia, Article 2831.
The Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan also considers the creation of the Consultative Group comprised by the representatives of the Non-governmental and International Organizations. The aim of the Consultative Group will be assisting the Parliamentary Council in implementing and monitoring the Action Plan.
Currently, IDFI, with the financial support of UNDP and EU, is implementing the project “Supporting the Parliament of Georgia in Implementation of the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan” that aims to assist the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Open and Transparent Governance in implementation of the commitments of the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan.
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