Tuesday, 27 May 2014
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT VELJANOSKI ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE PARLIAMENTARY INSTITUTE
Distinguished Ambassador Lazarotto,
Distinguished Excellences,
Colleagues – MPs,
Distinguished representatives of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
With great pleasure we mark today the start of the work of the Parliamentary Institute of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, a project realized together with our partner - Swiss agency for cooperation and development and which stands for professional, impartial staff for research and analysis.
The idea is, the project to provide the Assembly, the MPs, working bodies, councils, parliamentary groups, as well as the Assembly staff with objective general and comparative analyses, analysis of laws, as well as access to modern and appropriately systemized research library.
The Parliamentary Institute in legislative framework, was envisaged with the Law on the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, and as you know, the realization and functionality thereof are part of the benchmarks of the European Commission Progress Report for the Republic of Macedonia.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia and the Swiss Federal Council in regard with the “Support Establishing and Developing the Parliamentary Institute ” was signed on 17 May 2010, which is an indicator that this launch was a several years long process, which, I would say, was not that simple, which took into consideration every segment and detail for the overall functionality of the Parliamentary Institute.
Many meetings with the partner – Swiss Agency on cooperation and Development and other friends and donors who wanted to contribute in the building of this project took place.
The Members of the Steering Council of the Parliamentary Institute gave an additional impetus for the creation of a functional system and successful coverage of all planned phases.
The public was informed on several occasions that a transparent and competitive process preceded the employment of the staff with particular degree of professionalism and education, as necessity to establish the basis for specialized assembly staff on analysis and comparative research, following the example of several European Parliaments.
The team of the Parliamentary Institute is comprised of 25 civil servants, with appropriate degree of education, all trained and prepared to meet the requests of the MPs and the needs for drafting analysis and research.
Every MP from the new parliamentary composition, following an already determined procedure, will be able to request in writing or electronically a request for a brief information, thematic, comparative, statistic or chronological review on particular topics and areas in the scope of their interest. In the past few years, we witness the care paid to the strengthening of the overall capacity of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.
We were greatly engaged in projects which are realized in collaboration with partners and donors, projects which strengthen the capacity, but also the openness of the legislative house to the public and the citizens. Part of these projects is certainly “My MP” and “Offices for Communication with the Citizens”. Each of these projects starts, as I said with our partners, but the tendency is always the project to be realized independently by the Assembly.
The pleasure from the start of the work of the Parliamentary Institute is even greater because this project, during the preparation and implementation received vast support from all parliamentary groups in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia , and I would expiress my appreciation to all the colleagues who contributed in building the Parliamentary Institute as a project which will benefit the current and future parliamentary compositions and the staff of the Assembly.
Finally, I would express appreciation to the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation, Embassies of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, which actively contributed for successful start of this project.Appreciation to the Embassy of the United States of America and the colleagues- Congressmen and Senators, with whom I had meeting and who personally expressed efforts and supported the successful implementation of the project.
Appreciation to the Embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of France for their preparedness to contribute in these project.
I would express my personal conviction that the project we paid great attention, time and energy to – the Parliamentary Institute, which is created following the already established and functional models of practice, will respond to the task, and through the years, it will become an example and template for implementation of such a project in other Parliaments.
Allow me to once again express appreciation to all participants in the process and to whish successful launching of the Parliamentary Institute.
Thank you.