During the 1990s the Croatian Parliament was closed to citizens, despite the fact that the Parliament is intended to represent the citizenry. GONG has therefore decided to open the Parliament through different projects and programs, which resulted in the implementation of our Parliament program and the Open Parliament project.
During the 1990s the Croatian Parliament was closed to citizens, despite the fact that the Parliament is intended to represent the citizenry.
GONG has therefore decided to open the Parliament through different projects and programs, which resulted in the implementation of our Parliament program and the Open Parliament project.
The main issues with which GONG was concerned were:
– Rules on Public Access to Proceedings in the Croatian Parliament and its Working Bodies
– External committee members
One of the steps in developing an “opened Parliament” was the adoption of Rules on Public Access to proceedings in the Croatian Parliament, drafted in cooperation with GONG and Parliament’s working bodies.
Although the Rules were adopted, there are still two articles which allow Speaker and Secretariat to arbitrarily prohibit citizens, NGOs and the media from attending Parliamentary sessions. Therefore, GONG constantly monitors the implementation of the Rules, reacts in cases of more permanent prohibition of attendance and actively advocates amendments to those articles.
GONG has also warned about the fact that there are no defined and prescribed rules for appointment of external committee members. There are twenty-four committees in the Parliament, but only eleven have appointed external members. The remaining thirteen have offered no explanation for their failure to do so.
It remains unclear why certain committees appoint external members and why other committees do not. Furthermore, the criteria for appointment remain uncertain.
In February 2008. GONG and several NGOs (B.a.B.e., Centre for Peace Studies, GONG, Transparency International Croatia, Green Action, Green Forum, ZaMirNET) sent a joint request to the Government and Parliament regarding external members, transparent work of the Government.
In April 2008, Croatian Parliament adopted the changes of the Standing Orders of the Croatian Parliament introducing external members to every committee and setting a clear procedure (every citizen, NGO, institution has the right to propose the member).