Ziga: Consensus With Opposition on About 70% of New Rules of Procedure

Bratislava, December 27 (TASR) - There's an agreement across the political spectrum, including with the opposition, on the majority of planned changes due to be introduced to the Rules of Procedure, House Vice-chair Peter Ziga, who's tasked with heading Parliament in a temporary capacity, told TASR in an interview. Under new rules, for instance, amending proposals might no longer be read out loud in the Chamber, as they can be submitted electronically instead. Ziga can also envision shorter time limits for speakers, the introduction of fines for profanities and sterner dress code to ban T-shirts with inscriptions in the Chamber. It's not clear at the moment whether the new Rules of Procedure will be drafted and submitted as early as by the February's House session. Ziga perceives an overlap in opinions between the coalition and opposition on the new Rules of Procedure. "I'd say that we'll have a consensus on about 70 percent of changes. Then there's the remaining 30 percent, half of which will likely require concessions by both parties or compromises, whereas we probably won't have any deal on some 10-15 percent," he told TASR. Ziga underlined that the Rules of Procedure had been drafted for the so-called analogue era of yore. "The institute of reading amending proposals in Parliament out loud is already obsolete," he claimed, adding that it's no longer necessary for speakers to read out long paragraphs of bills provision by provision, as every lawmaker can have them at their disposal on their computers. mf