European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments May 30-31, 2006 Tallinn, Estonia

“The Role of Parliament in new democracy - at home and abroad”

Remarks by H.E. Mrs. Nino Burjanadze,

Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Tallinn, May 31, 2006

First of all, let me express my gratitude to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Mr. Van der Linden, for his tireless dedication to our common interests and organization of this session. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to Mr. Toomas Varek, President of the Riigikogu, for his wonderful hospitality.

As a unique forum for parliamentarians of the world, the Parliamentary Assembly of CoE has a special mandate in defining the challenges that parliaments are facing today and gives us a possibility to work together to advance our role in establishing and developing democratic values, which are absolutely essential for global peace and stability in the world.

I would like now to share some of the challenges that we are all facing today and talk about the role that parliaments can play in overcoming them.

Historically speaking, parliaments have always been a symbol and agent of the `Demos`; they are the basis for legitimate political authority and legislation and are accountable to “the people” for laws and regulations.

In today’s international environment we have countries with both new and old democratic traditions. It would benefit us all to meld these experiences together. We need to build bridges for sharing know-how and for establishing a more comprehensive global understanding of the challenges which threaten to hinder the democratic developments that are now taking place in areas that once suffered, were oppressed and could not exercise their right to self governance. This bridge among all types of existing democracies is established by means of parliaments fulfilling their role in harmonizing legislation and consolidating efforts at both the national and international level.

It is common knowledge that effective oversight, accountability and transparency are essential elements of democracy. Their importance cannot be overestimated; indeed, they are the elements that make democracy function. The lack of any one of these key components adversely affects not only the image of the parliamentarians at both, national and international levels, but also the ability of the parliaments to function as democratic institutions.

We are all aware of the significance of such fundamental features of democracy as the rule of law, public awareness, democratic `checks and balances` and so on. By advancing the role of parliaments, we create strong bases for meeting the new realities in today’s national and international political environments.

As key democratic institutions and law makers, parliaments are responsible for creating effective and just legal systems; systems that guide general future development and are capable of realizing the goals of democracies. This said parliaments should take major steps to further strengthen democratic structures at both the national and international levels.

The most vivid illustration of the Georgian Parliament acting as a fundamental democratic link between civil societies and governing bodies was our Rose Revolution. It was the Parliament of Georgia that found enough strength within itself, within its members to unite the entire Georgian society for working together in order to safeguard and institutionalize democratic representation.

However, very often, there is not enough experience to exercise the parliamentary oversight functions in its full content in transitional countries – so called `New democracies`, where the traditions of democracy are comparably new. Many of you in this hall are aware that the Government has won a constitutional majority in the parliament as a result of the revolution. We understand that now, having limited opposition, we have to be more participatory and bear more responsibility than usually a ruling party does. Sometimes it's not quite clear, even for the civil society, when a parliamentary majority criticizes its own governmental team representing the same political party. Politicians also need some kind of self-education to overcome the complacency and realize that it is necessary to stay critical even if you have 5 times bigger state budget that we used to have two years ago. I believe this is a challenge not only for Georgia but for all the rest of New Democracies, having tangible progress in democracy building.

Today, democratic development in Georgia is strongly associated with its leaders. It is essential to establish strong and viable democratic institutions that won’t be dependant only on personalities. I believe that building of democracy is not a one-time act but rather a permanent process. Parliaments can and should play crucial roles in ensuring the independence of judiciary through the formulation and implementation of appropriate laws.

In order to secure democratic principles at the national level, parliaments should serve as links connecting civil society and governing bodies. New ways of involving civil society and NGOs in the law making process must be found. This is important because public discussions provide parliaments with the topics that are important to civil society and NGOs provide parliaments with different views and approaches to the important issues of the day. The establishment of regular needs assessments of public interests and focus groups should be the responsibility of parliamentary research services.

We welcome the growing tendency to involve the international civil society through cooperation with nongovernmental organizations in the elaboration of the answers to the major challenges of our times. The organization of nongovernmental forums, parallel to the international conferences, is a clear example of this awareness by the international community of the necessary collaboration with the organizations, who are closer to the population and have a much wider experience and field practice than the governmental representatives.

During last two years, based on international experience and recommendations of our friends, we have established some new good examples of linking Georgian civil society with governing bodies of Georgia. The Parliament of Georgia established an NGO Advisory Board that provides valuable assistance for better understanding of the public attitude to some certain issues. Another example is the establishment of a `Business Council of the Speaker of the Parliament`. This Council helps building stronger relations between legislators and the business community; It provides a brilliant possibility for better understanding of the existing economic challenges in the country, for healthy and transparent lobbing of business interests and for right steps in order to stimulate investment and economic growth.

One of the main functions of a parliament `at home` is an appropriate implementation of the oversight functions over the adopted laws and ongoing reforms. This function and the role of parliament in strengthening the democracy cannot be underscored enough for it provides a major space for debate. Parliaments should operate as networking agents that link specialized decision-making bodies and government agencies with the general public, our citizens.

Parliaments must discover the best way to fulfill their national role in furthering oversight functions in accordance with international standards. This synchronization will ensure movement toward strengthening common global democratic values. Parliaments need to continue their efforts to fill democracy gaps in international relations.

At this stage, one of the priorities of the Georgia's foreign policy is the harmonization of existing legal basis to the European standards and it is the Parliament of Georgia that is making vigorous efforts in this regard. We have established special committee on European integration that is focused on these issues. Let me draw your attention to the fact that when a country is in transition-stage, it faces very complicated situations concerning the law-making processes. While trying to reach the highest level of standards it turns up that very often these highest standards are ineffective or can not be implemented correspondingly. On the other hand, the adjustment of new standards only to the existing political atmosphere is not the best way of democratic advancement. So, this is a dilemma which the parliaments of transitional countries are facing today and we have to find so the called `Golden middle` between those two. Here, inter-parliamentary cooperation can play a key role in adopting the most efficient legislation in every certain case.

It is common knowledge that even a perfect law can not work perfectly in different parts of the world and in different societies. In order to ensure a valid implementation of adopted international standards, we are trying to avoid the simple method of copying laws, even very effective ones and working hard to adapt them to Georgian realities while keeping their main essence. We are really working hard to promote the system of democratic law-making in the parliament of Georgia that will not be depended upon certain political realities but will be a valid ground for advancing the future democratic developments. In this regard, the parliament of Georgia attributes vital significance to cooperation with the Council of Europe, Venice commission, European Parliament and others.

in the last two years it is first time when Georgia's Parliament has played a decisive role in approving the Defence Budget and ensure its full transparency. Alongside the Defence budget, Parliament has an oversight function over the miscellaneous expenditures in Defence including the confidential expenses, for what we have special `Group of Trust` consisting of MP's. In this regard, very constructive Committee hearings are also an effective tool for avoiding any misunderstanding or mistake during the adoption of draft-laws.

While working on strengthening the democratic institutions, certain cases show that everything may not be perfect yet and everybody in this hall will agree that just in two years, it is impossible to make all the state institutions functioning in perfect way. The parliament of Georgia is actively involved in investigation of every single breach of human rights, no matter which state agency or individuals may be involved in.

The importance of the parliament as an integrative mechanism highlights the overall objective of bringing the branches of the government and civil society closer together through awareness, communication and transparency. We are proud to state that after the Rose revolution, the role of the Parliament of Georgia is becoming more and more indispensable for the country's daily life. I strongly believe that the experience of the East-European countries, having passed a similar way of democratization processes during the last decade, is of vital importance to help Georgia to avoid some crucial mistakes in achieving our main goal of building strong and democratic state.

Let me stress again that our key priority is to ensure the irreversibility of democratic processes on-going in Georgia, to build strong democratic state, reliable international partner with its predictable policy. Alongside these declarations, we are working really hard to reach our goals. We are dedicated to follow the track of democratic reforms and implement them in the country, no matter how much efforts they may need. The drastic reforms sometimes are very painful, but dear friends, I hope everyone will agree that building a democracy in a country which has suffered from the decades of compelled freedom and free will of its people, it is not an easy task for anyone who wants to alter existing unjust system of state institutions and destroy corruption as a system in such a short period of time.

Sometimes we are asked and even criticized for being too fast in our democratic reforms and aspirations to become a member of Euro-Atlantic institutions. The answer is that we can not afford to waste decades for transforming into a normal country and we are not afraid of some insignificant mistakes. Of course we should avoid dramatic mistakes that will only hinder our development. That’s why we are open for constructive and friendly criticism and in this regard closer relationship with European countries and especially with new democracies is of crucial importance.

Two years ago Georgian people expressed its solid will to choose a path of democratic development and the Euro-Atlantic institutions are the main guarantors for strengthening our young democracy and ensuring our achievements in making democracy building irreversible. Let me remind you that Georgia is in very complicated region and conflicts inside the country and worsened relationships with our neighbor, can serve as a ground for deterioration of situation or some provocative acts. We are keen to strengthen our democracy, our democratic and state institutions, our links with international community, relationship with CoE, EU, NATO, OSCE and so on, for the very simple reason that we don’t want not to involve these organizations in our existing problems or be a troublemakers for Europe, right on the contrary - it is their presence in the country that will guarantee seizing the outbreak of new problems and contribute to a great extant to tackling the old ones. Ladies and Gentlemen, we deem European Union or NATO as a source of democracy and we strongly believe that their margins should not be set only by geographical boundaries – they should end where democracy ends.

We all agree that the role of a parliament in strengthening the democracy `at home` is overwhelming but it should also be reflected in international legislative and political spheres. Parliamentarians have a special responsibility to become more actively involved with international political relations. By sharing our experiences and promoting our common values, we can establish democratic values globally. Democracy and respect for human rights create harmony and prevent internal conflicts which more and more become sources of tensions that tend to affect international peace and security. It would greatly facilitate global stability to establish a new mechanism of inter-parliamentary assistance – system for automatic response and immediate reaction from the democratic community to every single case of violation of common principles. Parliaments should strengthen their abilities to react and prevent conflicts and post-conflict situations. It is the parliament that should immediately respond to all violations of human rights and rules of international law. Individual parliamentarians also need to be more active in reacting to the violations of democratic principles not only inside their country, The infringement of common principles outside their own country any violation of democracy abroad, that goes in a low profile, may cause the same internal problems in future. I am speaking now not only about Georgia but the entire world.

The role of parliaments in conflict resolution should be decisive. Parliaments should ensure adherence to single standards established 60 years ago in the 10 principles of international law, thus preventing the use of double standards by some countries. As a result of those double standards ethnic conflicts persist in Georgia.

Another important “democratic technique” of parliaments is the protection of constitutions. They must guarantee free and fair elections, free mass-media, a strong and vocal civil society and the upholding of the law. Contemporary parliaments should ensure the citizenship principle – this means guaranteeing every citizen equal rights without discrimination.

I would like to stress again that unfortunately the problems exist and we should not ignore them, right on the contrary, we should do our best, trying all possible ways, to find the relevant solutions for all of them. I believe that all of us are aware of the need to learn from each other and to share the best practices adopted in each of our countries.

In our efforts, we should keep in mind that a strong and effective parliament is the fundamental guarantor of the constitution, of democratic values, and ultimately of our freedom.

Once again, I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to our Estonian hosts, who made it possible for us to work in this wonderful city and all those who are doing their utmost to make our organization even stronger and more valuable to our global democratic values.

Thank you for your attention.