Two "very important" bills that strengthen the direct relationship of the citizen with the Government, and with the Parliament were discussed on Wednesday by the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, its Chairman, Nikos Tornaritis, said.
Specifically, the Committee discussed the Law on Citizens' Initiative, which is a proposal of the Government, and the Law on Parliamentary Legislative Initiative of Citizens, a proposal of MP Christiana Erotokritou on behalf of the DIKO parliamentary group. The proposals foresee, that of the Government, the promotion of issues that concern citizens through the collection of signatures, to the Council of Ministers and, that of Ms Erotokritou, to the Parliament.
"Two very important bills were discussed that strengthen the direct, participatory, transparent scientific relationship between the citizen and the Government, and the citizen and the Parliament," Tornaritis said in statements after the session.
He said that the Youth Organization, the Youth Council, and all the bodies that are directly or indirectly interested or concerned by this issue were invited.
Tornaritis said that it is "a very important" European initiative that began to be implemented several years ago, and that gives citizens the right to enhance the knowledge and the topics of engagement of the executive and the legislature.
Through the government's proposal, he added, "I have the impression that Cyprus is taking a very important step forward" and that it strengthens democracy and the connection between citizens and the decision-making centres.
The Citizens' Commissioner, Panagiotis Sentonas, said the government's bill gives citizens, through the collection of a certain number of signatures, the opportunity to raise issues with the Council of Ministers.
"It is a tool that in practice will give citizens the opportunity to raise issues before the executive," he added.
He also said that both pieces of legislation are important "for the strengthening of participatory democracy in our country."
Erotokritou said that the proposal submitted on behalf of DIKO proposes the adoption of legislation introducing the institution of popular legislative initiative. She explained that citizens will be able, by collecting 5,000 signatures online, to promote any legislative regulation that concerns them.
She said that this is an innovative legislative proposal, which aligns the Cypriot along with the European framework.
She added that the collection of signatures puts before the parliamentary body, under certain conditions, a specific issue which can then become a law of the state.
Mrs. Erotokritou said that this proposal is not going to become a tool for the promotion of populism and for this reason, within the text there are provisions concerning the filtering of the initiatives submitted so that they do not conflict with constitutional provisions and do not stray from the limits of legality and seriousness.
He expressed hope that their proposal, submitted in 2016, will be brought to the plenary session at the beginning of the new parliamentary term.
The ELAM MP, Sotiris Ioannou, said that for the legislative initiative with the collection of signatures from citizens, they are positive about the substance of this proposal. "We believe that citizens should have a role and a voice in the political events of our country, in addition to the vote they express in every election," he said, adding that they have, however, submitted specific reservations regarding the proposal and the bill, "so that we do not end up removing citizens from the institutions and do not make a simple firework that will be extinguished too soon."
The Executive Secretary of the Cyprus Youth Council, Christina Giannapi, said they welcome the enactment of any legislation that involves direct citizen participation and policy making on behalf of all citizens of Cyprus, especially the youth.
Their own suggestion and concern always, she added, is to ensure the participation of youth and especially youth with accessibility issues, people with disabilities, so that the structures that are created are accessible to all citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.
Source: KYPE
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