Friday, 8 November 2019
MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT SUPPORT PROGRAMME ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Today, in the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, the First Working Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Parliament Support Programme was held, which aside from President Talat Xhaferi, was also attended by the Vice President Goran Misovski, Secretary General Cvetanka Ivanova, H.E. Sybille Suter Tejada, Ambassador of Switzerland to North Macedonia; H.E. Kristin Forsgren Bengtsson, Ambassador of Sweden to North Macedonia; Dr. Christoph Lanz, former Secretary General of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland; Mr. Alexander Fuzeresi, Head of the Parliamentary technical cooperation of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland; Mr. Antero Habicht, Deputy Secretary General of the Estonian Riigikogu and representatives of the NDI team led by director Chris Henshaw.
The Parliament Support Programme is a 10-year project supported by Switzerland aimed at improving public trust in the institution by safeguarding citizen interests and needs and by more consensus-oriented and inclusive debate and decision-making. The project is implemented by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in North Macedonia in partnership with the Center for Change Management, the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis. In terms of expertise, this project draws on experiences from the Swiss Federal Assembly, Estonian Riigikogu, European Parliament, German Bundestag, Latvia-based ManaBalss.lv.
At today's first meeting of the Advisory Committee, a rich discussion was held on the following topics: - Independence of the Assembly, i.e. Independent Service, Financing and Security of the Assembly, followed by: - Openness and digitalisation of the Assembly by improving information and communication systems, improving transparency and accountability through technical capacities, and strengthening open data through upgrading the website and e-parliament system and the last topic was: - human resources management with a view on a new systematization, capacity building activities for a highly-functioning parliamentary service, and opportunities for further education and training.
In his introduction, President Xhaferi expressed satisfaction with this initial meeting between what he called "sincere friends and tireless supporters and encouragers on our path to strengthening the institutional development, public policy dialogue in the institution, its oversight and legislative function, transparency and accountability to its own citizens." He also stressed that "... it takes sincere will, a goal, tools, and true partners beside us in order to jointly make the necessary steps towards the achievement of the three strategic and reform objectives of the Assembly and that in the first step, i.e. the joint meeting of all the stakeholders that would enable this process, a broad support was received from all. President Xhaferi also said that "The fact that we are in a pre-election phase does not change anything, since we all agree on one thing, that the goals we set, the initiatives we take, and the projects we implement are certainly not tied to our mandate as a political structure, that is, these are the values we want to incorporate into our parliamentary system, and it is an investment in a better, more functional and fully independent Assembly ... and at the same time it would contribute to building a stable and strong state with functional institutions that bear enormous responsibility in face of the challenge that calls for maturity and wisdom."
Experts from various parliaments gave a brief overview of the path they had taken to achieve independence of their legislatures, with all the attendees agreeing that any contribution to improving the functionality of the Assembly is a contribution to the democratization of the institution and is a step closer to a European Republic of North Macedonia.