Civil organizations have presented in the parliament their ideas and proposals regarding the 42nd NA Rules of Organization and Procedure.

The initiative to hold the discussion was launched by the chairwoman of the ad-hoc committee elected to draft the rules, Maya Manolova.

In the meeting have taken part the members of the ad-hoc committee, representatives of civil organizations, experienced with this subject, representatives of employers, trade unions, professional organizations and citizens.

Maya Manolova has presented the proposals of the committee for amendments to the rules of the previous parliament.
The new rules foresee two forms of parliamentary control – the standard one held on Friday, as well as one which is to take place right after cabinet meetings. Maya Manolova added that taking into account the existence of the caretaker cabinet and the present distribution of powers, the current parliament has the chance to retrieve its supremacy among the state organs and to transform itself from a voting machine into a working body, adopting quality legislation and exercising control over the government. In her view it is necessary to amend the rules regarding the process of hearing ministers. She has mentioned there was a plan to establish an institute in charge of the legislation, which is to hold a mandatory assessment of every legislative act and its impact as stipulated by the Normative Acts Law. She said the new parliament has to try distance itself from the vicious practice of subsidies given to an individual member of the parliament instead of being kept by the political party for which the money was allocated at the very beginning. She insisted there should be transparency and clarity over the money spent by the deputies for offices and assistants. 

At the meeting were discussed the introduction of on-line broadcast of the meetings of the permanent and temporary parliamentary committees, as well as  a proposal to create a permanent committee in charge of the civil society and one of the parliament’s vice-presidents to take the responsibility of the civil society  sector.

Maya Manolova has mentioned also the proposal for deputies to work in the course of three weeks and spend one week with their constituencies in the regions they come from.

Pavel Shopov (PP Ataka PG) declared they will propose amendments restricting the move of MPs from one parliamentary group to another.

The vice-president of the National Assembly, Hristo Biserov, said they will create a permanent parliamentary committee to oversee the security services in the country, the use of special intelligence tools and for control of the traffic data.

Antoaneta Tsoneva, Head of the Institute for Public Environment Development called for a new attempt to be made to adopt ethical rules for the members of parliament.

Zdravka Krusteva – from the Institute for Modern Politics suggested all proposals between the first and second reading of laws, made by a parliamentary member, to be published on the internet site, as well as to establish online register of all individuals lobbying for legislative amendments and their source of financing. 

Maya Manolova has suggested the creation of an active register of the civil organizations, partners to the parliament. 

Further proposals of civil organizations could be filed in the Office of the National Assembly until 29 May 2013. The latter should be addressed to the President of the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Draft Rules of Organization and Procedure of the National Assembly. E-mail: podns@parliament.bg.