At a meeting of the parliamentary commission on economy, budget and finance, deputies discussed the impact of procedural mechanisms on the promotion of initiatives.
Petru Burduja, a member of the PSRM faction, said that opposition MPs face difficulties in promoting draft laws, particularly due to the lack of government conclusions, which actually blocks the initiatives.
“I have a draft from December and the government does not give an opinion. It is about the requirement of 50% of domestic products on the shelves. Now I also have a project on the creation of an integrated value chain, providing for exemption of agricultural enterprises from income tax. And of course, the government is not giving an opinion. So what am I supposed to do? I promote it, I bring it to the commissions, but you do not accept it, because there is no governmental conclusion – it is a vicious circle,” Burduja said.
In response, PAS deputy Radu Marian gave examples from international practice.
“There are projects that received the government’s opinion – positive or negative – and we considered them depending on the position. We cannot say that there were none – there were enough of them. About six opposition bills have already been passed and approved in our commission in this convocation. I would like to cite statistics from other countries: in the UK, about two opposition bills are passed in one parliamentary convocation (about four years). There are about 60 million people living there, and we have 2.5 million”.
An alternative for the opposition
Promo-LEX constantly monitors parliamentary activity and systematically detects violations of the opposition’s rights. Thus, at the last session on April 9, 10 bills and two resolutions were adopted, of which only one was from the opposition. Often, when it comes to the initiatives of the ruling party, the commissions’ conclusions are approved even on the day of the plenary session, which limited the possibility of their full consideration by MPs and the public.
According to the Association, one of the ways for more active participation of the opposition is the introduction of an alternative shadow report, which is prepared and submitted by an opposition deputy to a specialized parliamentary commission. Such practice is used in the European Parliament.
