Irakli Kobakhidze: the Constitutional changes aim at creation of the Constitutional guarantees for democratic development

“Constitutional changes are one of the most important reforms ongoing in Georgia with the initiative of the Parliament and they aim at creation of the Constitutional guarantees for democratic development”, - the Speaker stated at the Ambassadorial 2017 – result-oriented diplomacy in turbulent environment. 

The Speaker participated in the panel “Democratic Development” and spoke about implementation of the Constitutional reform and the context of the document. He underlined importance of provision of comprehensive information about the reform to the diplomatic missions of Georgia abroad.

He stated that the Commission was set up on the basis of the objective criterion and only 3 out of 73 members – Presidential Administration representatives – abstained from participation in its activity. “We have reiterated that non-participation of the Presidential Administration in the Commission was unsubstantiated. The reason was that we did not agree with the format offered by the President, envisaging three co-chairs of the Commission. It meant the Presidential format. Instead, we offered the Parliamentary format on an intact basis deriving from the Constitution. The Parliament is the only agency authorized to initiate the Constitutional changes. Hence, the Parliamentary format had no other alternative”.

4 months was the optimal period for development of the changes, which was evidenced. The Speaker stated that necessity to change the Constitution is confirmed in the Venice Commission opinion of 2010. “Venice Commission in 2010 stated that the current document is in gross contradiction with the fundamental principles of the Constitutional law and especially with the checks and balances, which is violated and it naturally entails significant threats. Today, no threats are entailed in practice deriving from individuals when they have no negative political intensions, though in case of other individuals the threats may arise and naturally, we can consider the Constitution neither in 5-year nor 10-year perspective. It is the document that shall remain unchanged for the decades”.

The Parliament outlined two tasks to the Constitutional Commission: compliance with the legal principles of the Constitution and improvement of the Parliamentary administration system. “First of all, our fundamental task was to ensure compliance with the legal principles of the Constitution. As to the second task – today we have a defective Parliamentary administration system - checks and balances principle is not adhered to. For instance, Parliament is weakly represented in the system and besides, separation of competences between the main Constitutional agencies is vague, especially between the President and the Government. It shall be clarified and checks and balances need to be adhered to. We shall improve the Parliamentary administration system. It was the second task outlined by the Parliament to the Commission”.

Commission activity was maximally inclusive and 80% of the initiatives reflected in the changes derived from the opposition parties, experts and NGOs. He underlined that none of the norms in the Constitution attach preference to the ruling party. “No one can find the norm in the changes with which the ruling party guarantees own privileges unlike the current Constitution”.

The panel was moderated by the Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze. The panel was as well attended by the Justice Minister, Tea Tsulukiani. The participants discussed the main directions of the Parliamentary activity and the Constitutional changes and touched upon the judicial reform, human rights, OGP presidency by Georgia etc.