Cukjati Happy with Work of Parliament in 2004-2008 Term
Parliament Speaker France Cukjati labelled Tuesday the 2004-2008 term of the National Assembly, which is drawing to a close, as successful. He believes the relationship between the government and the assembly was appropriate and "maybe slightly more consistent and of better quality than in the previous term".
Cukjati recapped for the press that parliament held 41 regular and 38 extraordinary sessions in this terms so far. A busy summer however still seems to lie ahead, with an extraordinary session planned for next week and another one for August.
He pointed out that 23% of the legislative procedures were carried out in urgent mode, compared to 43% in the previous term.
While there is no major difference in the number of laws passed (436 in the previous and 468 in this term), or in the number of walkouts (111 vs. 92), the number of interrupted sessions was almost halved in this term (312 vs. 196), said Cukjati.
According to him, the incumbent government also issued ten times fever amendments to bills, which means that "its legislative proposals were better thought through". Only 3.3% of the questions posed to ministers by MPs remained unanswered at the end of the term, which compares to 6.4% under the previous government.
There were three referendums held in this term, which came after seven initiatives for referendums. As many as 26 initiatives for referendums were launched in the previous term, seven ending with a referendum.
Cukjati finds that this term of parliament was somewhat marked by internal disputes, which received a lot of media coverage. He believes it was "more lively than in the previous term", as the opposition was very active.
"We are a normal parliament, which also goes through things that sometimes raise adrenaline levels, liven up things, but are nothing tragic," he added.
Cukjati however regrets that such things, which reverberate in the media, sidetrack the high quality of work in the National Assembly. He highlighted as an example the numerous meetings organised in parliament during Slovenia's EU presidency.
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