Puci: Draft Amendment to Rules of Procedure at Final Stage of Preparation

Bratislava, 21 August (TASR) - A draft amendment to the parliamentary Rules of Procedure is at the final stage of preparation, Voice-SD caucus head Robert Puci told TASR on Thursday. Coalition MPs promised to submit the amendment to Parliament by Friday (22 August), and the House should thus deal with it at its next session, starting on September 9. "The draft amendment to the Rules of Procedure is in the final stage of preparation and will be submitted by the three parliamentary coalition caucuses no later than on Friday, 22 August. We'll inform you about the details of the amendment after it is submitted," Puci told the media. MPs have been meeting about the amendment for a long time now, with both the opposition and the coalition submitting their own proposals for changes. The opposition 'Slovakia' party hasn't attended the meetings. It argued that it wouldn't do so until the coalition started adhering to the current Rules of Procedure. The draft was expected to appear at the September parliamentary session. The amendment should bring several changes, for example, the obligation to read amending proposals in the House should be dropped. However, opposition MPs have previously criticised the fact that several of their proposals were rejected during working meetings. For example, the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) told TASR that its proposal that MPs could take maternity or parental leave, with a substitute serving in Parliament as replacement for them, was given short shrift. The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party also confirmed that several of its proposals were turned down. In addition, it opposes several of the changes proposed and, if they make it into the draft's final version, it probably won't support it. ko/df