Committee Chairman Vlatko Ratkovic greeted the representatives of international organisations, the non-governmental sector and domestic experts who attended the Committee sitting. He reminded them of the Committee’s numerous activities in the current convocations which have, in addition to reviewing bills and proposals of other acts at Committee sittings, been directed toward the drafting of the Uniform Methodological Rules for Legislative Drafting and organising public hearings on bills. Ratkovic announced that by the end of June a public hearing will be held on the bill on referendum and national initiative which should ensure a higher public influence over the parliament’s work and motivate the citizens to take part in decision-making on all levels.

The author of the analysis, Dr Oliver Nikolic presented the Analysis which covered three periods from 2007 to 2010 in which 279 laws were passed and a total of 1458 amendments were accepted. Most of the amendments were submitted by the deputies (77.43%), assembly committees (17.42%), Government (4.6%) and the Ombudsman.

The participants declared it good that such an analysis was done demonstrating progress in the improvement of the legislative process. They pointed out that an increased number of amendments submitted by competent committees, as well as the overall number of accepted amendments, show that the parliament is not simple machinery for law adoption.

The sitting was chaired by Vlatko Ratkovic, Committee Chairman.