Parliament has no action plan and special working format to fight against COVID-19

As is commonly known, the Parliament of Georgia stopped working on 21 March 2020 after the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency in Georgia. In the light of the government's active fight against the spread of the virus, the activities of the Georgian Parliament, of a separate division of the government, have remained hardly noticeable.

After 21 March 2020, the first session of the Bureau of the Parliament was held on 13 April at which the Speaker of the Parliament presented a report to the public concerning the activities carried out by MPs after the declaration of the state of emergency. It is of note that all of the activities referred to at the bureau session had been conducted by representatives of the parliamentary majority either individually or within the scope of the Coordinating Council of the government, yet without the participation of members of the opposition (non-majority MPs mentioned the lack of such possibility at the session). Anyway, the activities did not envisage an important role that the Parliament in the Parliamentary Republic performs.  

According to Article 44 of the Constitution of Georgia, the Parliament shall assemble for an extraordinary session as soon as a state of emergency is declared in the country. The emergency session shall continue until the state of emergency has been revoked. According to Article 83 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, the extraordinary session shall continue to work according to the plan developed by the Bureau of the Parliament. The decision of the Bureau, approved as a plan, shall stipulate that a plenary sitting of the Parliament shall be convened as required.

So far, the Parliament has not developed a plan of actions to be conducted by the Parliament in the fight against the pandemic during or after the state of emergency. In order to enhance its role and function as a separate branch of the government, the Parliament should:

1. Develop an action plan incorporating joint and coordinated actions in the fight against the pandemic in two directions:

• Pandemic-related measures that require an emergency response from the parliament, and
• Pandemic-related measures that do not require the parliament to respond immediately, but rather in an ordinary manner.

2. Set up a working group to identify problems and come up with solutions/strategies, in particular, concerning those challenges that do not emerge only in the period of emergency and need to be addressed in an ordinary course of life as well. The issues may include a support scheme for those who lost the means of subsistence, the steps to be taken to stimulate the economy within the scope of the Parliament, etc. The working group should:

• be composed of members of Parliament and experts working in the field of healthcare, finance, economy, and education;
• develop the strategy and action plan of the working group with the view to combating the pandemic;
• determine the scheme facilitating the coordinated work of the working group and the government;
• within the format of the working group, from time to time invite executive officials, relevant experts and other persons of the healthcare, economy, finance, education, agriculture, foreign relations, and other fields to discuss specific issues;
• ensure publicity and involvement within the working group meetings.

3. Assess the effectiveness of the actions carried out by the government until present and ensure the uniform enforcement of the law and protection of human rights. To do this, the Parliament must ask questions to representatives of the executive authorities and discuss in a parliamentary format all the issues that are vague or raise doubts in the society. For example:

• The Parliament should examine the criteria for regulating economic activities - prohibition or admission, especially that the government's heterogeneous approaches have been repeatedly noted. For example, it is unclear why, on the one hand, the commercial activities of the company "Clean House" were banned but of church shops allowed.
   

• Parliament should deliberate on whether the freedom of assembly restricted by the decree includes the restriction of assembly for religious purposes and whether the government uniformly enforces the law against all religious affiliations. The uncertainty was particularly exacerbated by controversial interpretations made by the Speaker of Parliament, Prime Minister and other ministers regarding the matter.  

• Parliament should focus on the content of the President's decree and give relevant instructions to the government. The President’s decree contains certain issues on measures to be taken during the state of emergency that are inconsistent with the legislation (e.g., spending the budget without the approval of the emergency budget) or grant the government extremely broad powers.

4. During the state of emergency, when the possibility of participation of interested parties in the decision-making process is significantly limited, the Parliament should develop an approach to those important issues that are not related to the state of emergency (for example, parliamentary committees are currently considering the ratification of multimillion-dollar loan agreements; a legislative proposal of the High Council of Justice, etc) and postpone the deliberation of such issues if the involvement is difficult to achieve.

With regard to the same issue, it is of crucial importance that the Parliament should determine the procedures with the active cooperation of the Committee on Procedural Issues that will prevent the weakening of the role of Parliament in the fight against the spread of the virus and neglecting the principle of transparency of its activities. The Parliament should adopt measures to ensure the continuity of its work during and after the abolition of the state of emergency, as there is a high likelihood that even after the state of emergency is lifted, a range of special recommendations regarding social distancing and anti-virus measures will remain in force.