The Georgian Parliament is considering amendments to its Rules of Procedure in an expedited manner, including changes to the process for selecting members of the Board of Trustees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster.
Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili presented the legislative package to the Procedure Committee on June 8, outlining 14 proposed amendments.
One of the key changes concerns the procedure for electing trustees of the Public Broadcaster. Papuashvili described the current system, which has been in place since 2014, as “absurd in substance.”
Under the existing rules, vacancies on the 11-member Board of Trustees are filled through an open competition. A nine-member commission reviews candidates and submits a shortlist to the entities entitled to nominate trustees, including the Public Defender, the parliamentary majority, the parliamentary opposition, and the Supreme Council of Adjara.
The Parliament then elects trustees from among the shortlisted candidates.
Under the proposed amendments, the nominating entity would be able to directly select and submit a candidate to Parliament without the involvement of the competition commission.
“If there is a vacancy that falls within the quota of a particular subject, that subject should select a candidate as it wishes and present one candidacy to Parliament,” Papuashvili said.
He argued that the current system limits parliamentary sovereignty by requiring outside involvement in a process that should be controlled by the institutions responsible for making nominations.
Under the proposed procedure, the nominated candidate would be reviewed by the Sectoral Economy Committee before being put to a vote at a plenary session.
The legislative package also includes several other procedural changes. These include voting on legislative packages as a whole during the third reading, modifications to expedited legislative procedures, allowing interpellations to be held on Tuesdays, and changes to parliamentary procedures following the President’s annual report.
Additional amendments concern committee membership rules for independent MPs, procedures for declaring breaks during plenary sessions, withdrawal of draft laws, and the continuation of legislative initiatives from previous parliamentary convocations.
Parliament plans to consider and adopt the amendments during the current sessional week.
