The Conference was attended by the chairpersons and members of legislative and constitutional committees of the Western Balkan states, said committees’ staff and well as legal experts employed by the parliaments of the Western Balkan states, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
The participants exchanged experiences of the legislative and constitutional committees, with a special focus on their role in improving the quality of legal texts and discussion of laws from the aspect of their compliance with the constitutional and legislative system, as well as the importance of the expert support offered by the staff in the committees’ work.
The Conference mainly focused on the assistance the support services provide to the MPs and committees in the legislative procedure. The participants discussed the way parliamentary support services are organised i.e. whether there are specialised legislative units and what their structure, scope and responsibility is. They also discussed expert assistance in the drafting of amendments, at the committee sessions, in the inspection of the compliance of the bills with the existing national legal order and EU acquis, as well as experiences in the drafting of opinions to the bills and how these opinions are presented.
At the end of the Conference the participants were informed about the technical support options in the legislative procedure relating to the use of databases and quality of parliamentary websites.