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PARLIAMENT: DEPENDENCE OF DIVERSITY Andrei Kazakevich
Summary
The activity of the Belarusian Parliament in 2017 remained under the decisive influence of the Council of Ministers and the President, the activity of deputies regarding initiation of legislation remained at a low level. In 2017, the deputies approved all the draft laws adopted for consideration, and also took note of all the Presidential decrees.
Changes in the composition of the Belarusian Parliament following the 2016 elections were predominantly symbolic and manifested in the form of a less monolithic character at the voting on individual draft regulations and a greater variety of political assessments in the media.
The peculiarity of the international activity of the Belarusian Parliament in 2017 was the holding of several European forums in Belarus within the framework of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Central European Initiative and the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership. This was a new manifestation of the escape from foreign policy isolation.
Trends:
• The Parliament remains completely dependent on the government and the President;
• Deputies interact more actively with the media and vote against a little more often;
• The national Assembly is actively involved in the organization and work of the European inter-parliamentary forms.
The 2016 parliamentary elections brought some changes to the composition of the Parliament. In particular, the share of representatives of political parties, which reached a record level since 2000 (16 out of 110 deputies), the Deputy corps has become much younger. Finally, two deputies from alternative political forces1 were included in the Parliament. The increase in political diversity, however, had its own internal limitations — the Parliament almost did not include the heads of political organizations that received mandates, including the leadership of the 'Belaya Rus'.
For details see: Andrei Kazakevich. "Parliament: Changes without consequences? Belarussin Yearbook 2017. Vilnius: Lohvinau: 2017. 37—44. Print.
The political experiment with the composition of the Deputy corps in 2017 manifested in the activities of the Parliament. At least once there was a vote against — at the consideration in the first reading of the amendments and additions to the law On international treaties of the Republic of Belarus, which concerns the reduction of the authority of the Parliament to ratify international treaties and delegate it to the President. Ten deputies openly did not approve of the draft law, which is much less than the majority, but at the same time it is quite atypical manifestation of parliamentary independence for Belarus2. In addition, two alternative MPs who entered the Parliament at the last election — Hanna Kanapackaya and Alena Anisim — regularly appeared in the media, made visible law making and grassroots initiatives, spoke on international arenas forming a specific political alternative.
Nevertheless, all the changes in the Parliament's activities were rather symbolic. The relatively mass voting against remains an exception in the parliamentary activity, and alternative deputies, despite all the activity, remain far from the status of influential political figures and leaders of public opinion. The role of the Parliament remains unchanged and consists in the discussion and improvement of normative acts, which are sent by the Parliament to the Council of Ministers and the President. In the Parliament, laws may experience significant changes, but they cannot be rejected. MPs also perform a supporting role in the development of international contacts and public functions: commenting on political events and policy documents, talks in media, international travels and visits, social events, participation in economic and social public events, etc. Also duties of deputies are to work with people in their own constituency and explain state policy. In 2017, the most relevant was the work to reduce the social tensions caused by application of decree No. 3 On the prevention of social dependency.
As before, the leadership publicly voices and formulates its subordinate political position as a guide of political activity. An
Быковский, Павлюк. «Парламент: у «спящего института» стало еще меньше полномочий. Депутаты как лишнее колесо в телеге.» Наше мнение. 30 Dec. 2017. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://nmnby.eu/news/ analytics/6515.html>.
example would be the speech of the Chairman of the House of Representatives Uladzimir Andrejchanka at the opening of the third session on October 3, 2017: 'It (the session) will be marked by the implementation of the requirements of the head of state...', 'The tasks set by the President of the Republic of Belarus in his address to the Belarusian people and the Parliament formed the basis of our legislative activity, study of law enforcement practice, participation of the Deputy corps in the implementation of the foreign policy of the state. All this allows us today to set priorities for the near future'.3
Such a description of the political role is typical for the leadership of the Council of the Republic. In particular, at the opening of the second session of the Council of the Republic on April 3, 2017, Mikhail Myasnikovich noted: 'The task of the Council of the Republic, is to promote by all means the necessary legislative decisions, as well as the development of initiatives aimed at implementing the provisions of the election program of the President of the Republic of Belarus, distinguished Alexander Lukashenko...'4
Based on public representation, there is a certain functional division between the chambers of the Parliament. Deputies of the House of Representatives, as well as Chairman uladzimir Andrejchanka, comment quite actively on current political processes, elections in Belarus and abroad, the foreign policy situation — relations with European countries and the United States, Belarusian-Russian relations. Mikhail Myasnikovich and other members of the Council of the Republic focus on economic issues. In 2017, the emphasis was on attracting investment, the development of new technologies, industry and regional development.
Андрейченко, Владимир. «Отвечая на вызовы времени.» Палата представителей Национального собрания РБ. 3 Oct. 2017. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://www.house.gov.by/ru/mterview-ru/view/otvechaja-na-vyzovy-vremeni-2858/>.
Мясникович, Михаил. «Совершенствование законодательства — важнейшие условия социально-экономического развития страны.» Совет Республики Национального собрания РБ. 3 Apr. 2018. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://www.sovrep.gov.by/ru/speeches-ru/view/ sovershenstvovanie-zakonodatelstva-vazhnejshee-uslovie-sotsialno-ekonomicheskogo-razvitija-strany-177/>.
Legislative activity
As before, the two Houses of Parliament remain dependent on the Council of Ministers and the Presidential Administration for their legislative activities. However, the role of the government in initiating laws has tended to increase in recent years. If, for example, in 2008, about 30% of the adopted regulations were initiated by the Presidential Administration, in 2017 this figure decreased to 11%.
During the second, (3 March — 26 April), and the third (2 April — 20 December) sessions the House of Representatives adopted 42 legislative acts in the second reading, 36 of them were initiated by the government and 6 — by the President5. None of the adopted normative acts was initiated by the deputies of the House of Representatives or the Council of the Republic. Another 52 acts were adopted in one reading — 4 reports on budget execution sent by the President, and the rest were international treaties and amendments to them, prepared for adoption by the Council of Ministers. In addition, 6 presidential decrees were taken into account.
Among the entire array of regulations that were considered by the House of Representatives in 2017 (acts that were adopted only in the first reading, the ones that were prepared for consideration, and the ones prepared for the second reading, etc.), three were initiated by the deputies of the House of Representatives. The first bill, prepared by the deputies, is an addition to the Code of administrative offences and the procedural Executive Codes on administrative offences. The document was submitted to the House of Representatives on August 8, 2016 and, thus, was initiated by the deputies of the House of Representatives of the last convocation. Other two draft laws of economic orientation were introduced by the members (chairpersons and Vice-chairs of relevant committees) during the third session, amendments to the law On investment (initiated by deputies Alexey Sokol and Uladzislau Shchepau), and amendments of the law On privatization of state property
Here and further it was calculated based on information about law making activity at the web-page of the House of Representatives. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://www.house.gov.by/ru/zakonodatelnaya-dejatelnost-ru/>.
(introduced by Leanid Brych and Sergey Zemchanka), but none of these laws was adopted in 2017.
In accordance with the established role of the Parliament in the legislative process, none of the normative acts was rejected in 2017, returned to the subject of legislative initiative, returned for revision or in some other way approved by the House of Representatives. of the total number of projects, one bill was withdrawn by the government.
The activities of the Council of the Republic in 2017 also fully complied with the established political rule. The upper House of the Parliament approved all the bills adopted for consideration. During the second session, 34 laws were adopted in full, and 45 laws were adopted during the third session. All approved laws were signed by the President.6
International activity
A characteristic feature of the international activity of the Belarusian Parliament in 2017 was the organization and active participation in several European inter-parliamentary forums in Belarus. The meetings were a new manifestation of the escape from foreign policy isolation in relations with European countries and the promotion of Belarus as a platform for international communication.
On July 5-9, 2017, the 26th session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was held in Minsk, which was considered as a foreign policy achievement for the whole country. According to official data, 57 parliamentary delegations took part in the session. The main topic was 'Strengthening mutual trust and cooperation for peace and prosperity in the OSCE region'.
«Материалы по итогам работы второй сессии (3 апреля — 26 июня 2017 г.) Совета Республики Национального собрания Республики Беларусь.» Совет Республики Национального Собрания РБ. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://www.sovrep.govby/uploads/files/itogi-6-2.pdf>; «Материалы по итогам работы третьей сессии (2 октября — 20 декабря 2017 г.) Совета Республики Национального Собрания Республики Беларусь.» Совет Республики Национального Собрания РБ. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://www.sovrep.gov.by/uploads/files/itogi-6-3. pdf>.
Mass detentions and other measures of pressure on the political opposition, the media and public structures in February and March 2017 slightly worsened the overall atmosphere of the event, but the de-escalation of the political situation until June made it possible to remove most of the issues and the session was held in a certain format. From the very beginning, the session was considered as an important international event, and the role of Belarusian deputies was not leading — at the opening of the forum Alexander Lukashenko spoke, and the Ministry of foreign Affairs played a key role in the formal and informal organization. The Belarusian delegation consisted of six people. Four from the House of Representatives — Valery Varanetsky (Chairman of the Permanent Commission on international Affairs), Volha Popko (Deputy Chairperson of the Commission), Baleslav Pirshtuk (Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives), Andrei Rybak (Chairman of the Permanent Commission on industry). Two representatives of the Council of the Republic were Sergey Rakhmanov and Sergey Gaidukevich (Chairman and Deputy of the Permanent Commission on international Affairs and national security).
The results of the session were quite positive for the Belarusian side. The draft critical resolution proposed by the delegates of Lithuania did not receive support. The milder Declaration The Situation in Eastern Europe, which, aside from Belarus, contained critical assessments of Russia and Azerbaijan, was adopted at the level of the Committee On Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, but when voting for the final Declaration of the 26 th session of the PA OSCE did not gain the necessary number of votes and was not included in the final document. An interesting fact was that the vote for the final Declaration of the Belarusian delegation was not unanimous. Two delegates from Belarus (Sergei Gaidukevich and Andrei Rybak) voted against, thus expressing their disagreement with the point, which condemned Russia's policy towards Ukraine. It was officially announced that the deputies did not have a common position on the document and decided individually how to vote. Probably the organizers of the session from the Belarusian side sought to minimize the negative reaction of Russia to the Declaration by voting differently, at the same time preserving the positive attitude of the EU and Ukraine.
With the active participation of the Council of the Republic, a meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership, CORLEAP, was held in Minsk on May 22, 2017. The reason was that from November 2016 to September 2017 Belarus was a co-chair of this organization. The main official issue of consideration was the problem of energy efficiency of regional authorities. During the meeting, the problems of regional development were discussed, and the EU representatives spoke in favor of expanding the powers of local councils in Belarus.7 On September 12, in Brussels, Chairman of the standing Committee of the Council of Regional Policy and Local Self-government Alexander Popkov co-chaired the annual conference of CORLEAP, the main purpose of which was to share the experience of local self-government of the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries and the problem of sustain-ability of regional communities and local authorities.
Due to the fact that Belarus chaired the Central European Initiative (CEI) in 2017, a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee of the parliamentary dimension of this organization was held in Minsk on 30 May 2017. The meeting was attended by 12 delegations (the total number of states participating in the initiative was 18). The main topic of the meeting was 'Intel-lectualization of the economy in the CEI region: innovative production, management, human potential', also the economic development of the region, information technology and human capital development were discussed. In addition, on November 28, 2017, a meeting of the CEI Parliamentary Assembly was held in Minsk, which was attended by 12 parliamentary delegations. The main official topic was: 'Digital technologies under the conditions of geopolitical security'.
The international activity of the Belarusian Parliament took place in more usual formats. Representatives of the House of Representatives and those of the Council of the Republic took part in meetings of the Forum of regions of Belarus and Rus-
«Реализация политики добрососедства будет способствовать достижению основных целей ВП — Попков.» БелТА. 22 May 2017. Web. 26 May 2018. <http://www.belta.by/poHtics/view/reaHzatsija-politiki-dobrososedstva-budet-sposobstvovat-dostizheniju-osnovnyh-tselej-vp-popkov-248542-2017/>.
sia (June 28-30), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and other Interparliamentary organizations. In 2017, the Belarusian Parliament held bilateral meetings with colleagues from Turkey, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Georgia and other countries.
Conclusion
It can be assumed that the experiment with pluralism will continue and the deputies in different forms will demonstrate political diversity, comment on political events and otherwise make the activities of the Parliament more public. The role of the two chambers in the discussion of laws may also grow and the number of draft laws initiated by the deputies will slightly increase. At the same time, there will be no redistribution of real powers and political weight for the benefit of Parliament. At the moment, there are no trends for personnel changes in the leadership of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic.
The international activity of the Parliament, as before, will depend heavily on the general foreign policy environment. The activity will be more directed to the European side, where there are more mechanisms and new communication platforms for the Parliament.
