Citizen oversight of legislative processes (MK0143)

Improving the participation of citizens in the Assembly’s legislative and supervisory process
Start and end date of the commitment : January 2019 - December 2021
Lead implementing institution
Assembly of RM
Description of commitment
Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment
Lack of regulation of the mechanisms for participation of citizens in the work of the Assembly. Insufficient application of the mechanism, supervisory debates and inability for the citizens to participate on the same.
Main objective
Functional parliamentary democracy and open parliament.
Brief description of the commitment
Citizens’ participation in the legislative process. Strengthening the Assembly’s supervisory function and achieving the Assembly’s legislative function.
OGP challenge addressed by the commitment
- Increasing public integrity
Additional information
Reference to Objective 16 "Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions" Target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. This commitment will contribute to increase the citizens’ participation in the work of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia by facilitating citizens' access, reducing formal procedures and expanding the scope of activities in which citizens can get included.
Milestones
3.1.1 Increasing the percentage of working bodies that have included experts in their work up to 30%
3.1.2 Adopted Act regulating supervisory debates
3.1.3 Adopted plan for supervisory debates
3.1.4 Increasing the participation of citizens and civil society organizations at Working bodies’ sessions up to 70%
Contact information
Name of responsible person from implementing agency
Cvetanka Ivanova
Title, Department
Secretary General of the Assembly
Phone and e-mail
02/3112-255, sekretar@sobranie.mk

Open Parliament III: Participation of Citizens

3.1. Improving the participation of citizens in the Assembly’s legislative and supervisory process

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [114]

Citizens’ participation in the legislative process. Strengthening the Assembly’s supervisory function and achieving the Assembly’s legislative function.

Milestones:

3.1.1 Increasing the percentage of working bodies that have included experts in their work up to 30%

3.1.2 Adopted Act regulating supervisory debates

3.1.3 Adopted plan for supervisory debates

3.1.4 Increasing the participation of citizens and civil society organizations at Working bodies’ sessions up to 70%

Start Date: January 2019

End Date: December 2021

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to improve public participation in the work of the Assembly of North Macedonia, and strength the public’s role in the legislative process in general. Specifically, the commitment calls for increasing the percentage of committees (working bodies) that use experts, adopting acts to regulate supervisory debates, adopting a plan for supervisory debates, and increasing the participation of citizens and civil society at working body sessions.

According to a representative from the National Democratic Institute (NDI), while the Assembly’s current Rules of Procedure allow for the use of experts in their work and at public hearings, in practice, the use of experts is inconsistent across committees. [115] Furthermore, while Assembly committees hold public oversight hearings, this process is not well regulated and government officials are not obligated to appear at the public hearings that take place. The public hearings are important, as they are currently the only way for citizens and civil society to get involved in the Assembly’s oversight functions. Thus, milestones 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 aim to make it easier for committees to organize public hearings and reduce the possibility of political influence over committees by not holding public hearings. Milestone 3.1.4 aims to increase the percentage of citizens and civil society participation in committee sessions “up to 70 percent”, though it is unclear how the Assembly currently measures this participation.

This commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information because it plans to make the Assembly oversight more transparent by better regulating public hearings. It is also relevant to the OGP value of civic participation because it aims to increase the involvement of citizens and civil society in committee sessions. The proposed activities are verifiable, but the commitment does not provide details on the acts and plan for supervisory debates, nor does it provide the baseline percentages for the use of experts in committees and citizen and civil society participation in committee sessions.

The potential impact of these activities largely depends on how they are implemented, as the content of the plan for committee hearings and the future role of citizens and civil society in committee sessions are not specified in the action plan. Additionally, it is unclear if the new regulations on public hearings of Assembly committees will require government officials to attend them, which is important given that the aim of these regulations is to reduce the possibility of political pressure over committees’ activities.

Next steps

The IRM recommends the following:

• Each parliamentary committee could establish a permanent expert group that is consulted as soon as a draft act is registered in the parliament (and much earlier at the pre-drafting stage in the case of laws initiated in parliament rather than by ministries). The expert groups could comprise independent experts (academics, lawyers, analysts), CSOs working in the field of the committee’s focus, and other relevant stakeholders. The expert groups should have clear, open criteria for membership and invite participants on a rolling basis, and participants who can join for review of specific draft laws.
• Parliamentary committees could provide feedback to participants on which proposed amendments were adopted, and which were not, and why, and which individuals or organizations proposed them.
• Give sufficient advance notice of meetings and deadlines for proposed comments and amendments, both directly to interested parties and to expert group members, and on the parliament’s website.

[114] The texts for all the commitments are an abridged version of the commitment texts. For the full commitment texts, see the Republic of North Macedonia 2018-2020 National Action Plan, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Macedonia_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf

[115] Aleksandra Cvetkovska, National Democratic Institute, email correspondence with IRM, 21 January 2020.

Commitment 3.1 Participation of citizens in the Assembly’s legislative and supervisory process

Limited:

The Act for regulating supervisory debates and the plan for supervisory debates were not adopted. [144] The self-assessment report mentions a public call on the Assembly’s webpage for two technical experts to support the Commission for Supervision of the Implementation of the Measures for Interception of Communications. [145] However, it does not state whether these experts were hired. There is also no evidence available to determine if the percentage of working bodies that include experts in their work increased to 30 percent, as envisioned in the commitment. In addition, there is no evidence that the participation of citizens and CSOs in the working bodies has increased to 70, as planned.

According to a Westminster Foundation representative, more effort is needed to include experts in the working bodies of the Assembly. [146] Improvements regarding openness and citizen participation have been made, with the Assembly organizing several public debates between 2018 and 2020, and the next step could focus on formalizing these mechanisms for consulting citizens.