Member of the National Council Andrej Poglajen has sent a proposal to the National Council for a suspensive veto of the amendment to the law on parliamentary inquiries. The concerns relate to the inadequacy of the amendment’s adoption procedure and its content, which have so far also been pointed out by the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), which believes that the amendment’s original purpose is to protect the Prime Minister from being investigated.
Andrej Poglajen, the veto proponent, believes that the amendment interferes with the constitutionally protected effectiveness of parliamentary inquiries and that the legal solutions may allow for delays in the conduct of parliamentary inquiries, which will have a negative impact on the implementation of the acts of the competent authorities and jeopardise the fulfilment of the purpose of the inquiry. The proposal will first be discussed on Friday by the Committee on State Regulation. If it is approved, the National Council is expected to take a decision on the same day, as the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported.
The veto petitioner said in his petition for an extraordinary session of the Committee on State Regulation that the State Regulation and Local Self-Government and Regional Development Commissions had discussed the draft amendment at the beginning of May and had not supported it. “The joint opinion of the commissions expressed a number of concerns, many of which remained valid even after the content of the original version of the bill was amended at the meeting of the parent committee of the National Assembly and during the second reading in the plenary of the National Assembly,” he noted.
The key concerns relate to the inadequacy of the procedure for adopting the amendment under the abbreviated procedure, as well as to its content. Among the substantive inadequacies, Poglajen states, inter alia, that the solutions of the amendment do not meet the requirements of the Constitutional Court’s decisions, which it is intended to transpose into law, in a sufficiently qualitative and appropriate manner, and that they are not sufficiently well thought out.
The amendment interferes with constitutionally protected efficiency and allows for delays
The veto proposer believes that the amendment interferes with the constitutionally protected efficiency of parliamentary inquiries, since the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry may be delayed by at least 90 days because of the statutory deadlines, which in turn constitutes an impermissible interference with the efficiency of the implementation of the consequences linked to the exercise of the powers of the National Council in relation to parliamentary inquiries at the request of the National Council.
As the proposer further states, the legal solutions may allow for the delaying of the parliamentary inquiry, which will have a negative impact on the implementation of the acts of the National Council, the exercise of the supervisory powers of the National Assembly and jeopardise the fulfilment of the purpose of a specific parliamentary inquiry. This was introduced to establish the political accountability of public officeholders or to amend legislation in a specific area.
SDS: “The purpose of the law is to protect Robert Golob”
The amendment to the law was adopted by the National Assembly on Monday and submitted to the parliamentary procedure by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič. The SDS party was critical of the law, as they believe that the original purpose of the amendment is to protect Prime Minister Robert Golob and to prevent an investigation into alleged abuses in the business dealings of the companies Gen-I (which he used to head) and Star Solar (which he owns) and the financing of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda).
The SDS party also pointed out in relation to the amendment that “in almost none of the cases does it address the concerns raised in the Constitutional Court decisions” and that the extension of the deadlines will further prolong the proceedings.
Among other things, it introduces the possibility of a subsequent constitutional review of the act governing the parliamentary inquiry. The Constitutional Court must rule on this within 30 days, and the act ordering a parliamentary inquiry must be suspended pending the Constitutional Court’s decision. MPs of the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) had proposed a consultative referendum before the amendment was adopted, but the National Assembly rejected it last week.
C. Š.
