The Marshal of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, submitted the first drafts following the changes to the Rules of Order of the Sejm for public consultation. These are: a draft amendment to the property tax prepared by PiS and the Polish 2050-TD draft amendments to the institution of pre-trial detention.
The draft amendment to the Local Taxes and Levies Act and the Tax Regulation submitted by PiS aims to impose an obligation on municipalities to send the annually determined property tax rates to the Minister of Finance.
The Polish2050-TD project to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, in turn, concerns the reform of the institution of pre-trial detention in Poland and presupposes, among other things: openness of hearings in detention, abolition of the condition that a suspect can be subjected to a severe penalty as the sole reason for detention, the obligation to inform the defense of the date of the hearing, and better access to files for the lawyer and the suspect.
Public consultations
The Chancellery of the Sejm recalled that from October 31, all parliamentary (including committee) and civilian bills are subject to public consultations before being submitted for first reading. The Marshal of the Sejm may also submit for consultation projects submitted by the Senate and the President.
Any interested party may submit comments on the project on its own behalf or on behalf of a legal entity or other non-legal entity within 30 days. Comments are submitted through the Sejm Information System (on the Sejm website, go to the “works of the Sejm” tab and then to “public consultations”) and after authentication of the submitter, for example through a trusted profile. The submitted comments will be made available on the Sejm website and can be read by any interested person, in particular the author of the bill and members of parliament.
The comments will also be analyzed by experts from the Chancellery of the Sejm, who can include them in the regulatory impact assessments prepared for individual projects. This allows the opinions submitted during public consultations to be taken into account in legislative work and become part of the applicable law.
“Improving the quality of legislation
The Chancellery of the Sejm noted that “social consultation on draft laws submitted to the Sejm is a pioneering solution on a European scale and complements the forms of social participation existing in the Polish political system with a new instrument.”
The opinions submitted during public consultations will help parliamentarians and experts during the next stages of the legislative process and will contribute to improving the quality of the laws adopted in the Sejm.
– emphasized the Chancellery of the Sejm.
At the end of July, the Sejm adopted an amendment to its regulations, which, among other things, introduces the following: possibility for citizens to comment on projects. In addition, an obligation was introduced to prepare so-called parliamentary bills before the first reading. regulatory impact assessments (RIA). In the case of presidential and Senate projects, the Marshal may order the preparation of such opinions.
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nt/PAP
Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.