“The constitutional process in Georgia and its prospects” conference, organized by the Open Society Georgia Foundation, was held in Bazaleti on April 16 and 17.
This activity covered the discussion of concepts and proposals of state constitutional commission and public constitutional commission, as well as of the newly edited version of the current constitution.
The main topics of the meeting referred to the governmental institutions in the new version of the constitution: the parliament, the government, the president, judicial authority, as well as to the territorial arrangement and local governance issues.
By organizing the conference the OSGF supported the launch of the discussion among the state constitutional commission, public constitutional commission and citizens involved in the constitutional reform process. The interest of these citizens towards the given processes is huge from political, civil or other view.
The conference brought together the following participants: Mr. Avtandil Demetrashvili, Chairman of the state constitutional commission; Mr. Tengiz Sharmanashvili, Commission Secretary; Mr. Giorgi Kverenchkhiladze, Head of the Executive Governance Issues Working Group under the Commission; Mr. Ioseb Futkaradze, Head of the Judicial Authority and Basic Rights Working Group under the Commission; Mr. Vakhtang Khmaladze and Mr. Mindia Ugrekhelidze, members of the public constitutional commission; as well as experts and representatives of students constitutional commission, NGOs and media.
Mr. Vakhtang Khmaladze and Mr. Mindia Ugrekhelidze, the representatives of the public constitutional commission, shared their opinions and conceptual views on the issues related to constitutional changes, constitutional frames, and forms of state and local governance.
Mr. Tornike Cheishvili, Chairman of the Students Constitutional Commission, also expressed the commission’s idea on the above mentioned themes.
Mr. Avtandil Demetrashvili, Chairman of the State Constitutional Commission, made a presentation on the theme “Governmental Institutions in the new version of the constitution”. He introduced to the participants the part of the working version, elaborated for the constitutional changes, that regulates the communication between the governmental branches. The Chairman confirmed that the main goal of the commission was and remains the establishment of the balanced governance system within the revised version of the constitution.
Mr. Tengiz Sharmanashvili, the State Commission Secretary, gave a speech on territorial arrangement of Georgia and local self-governance in the new version of the constitution and stated that the commission has made a decision on creating a separate chapter for constitutional norms regulating the local self-governance in the new version of the constitution. The project that covers the basic principles of local self-governance implementation, its obligations, financial and legal guarantees has already been prepared and submitted to the Venice Commission for future expertise and conclusion.
The conference audience got the information on the establishment of solid constitutional guarantees essential for the functioning of the judicial system from the detailed presentation made by Mr. Ioseb Futkaradze, Head of the Judicial Authority and Basic Rights Working Group.
The participants got familiar with the results of the research “The analysis of the current constitutional reform in Georgia”, conducted by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy. During the meeting it was underlined that the society must be better informed about the ongoing constitutional reform in order to support the active involvement of the citizens of Georgia into the constitutional reform process.
Despite the different views expressed during the conference, most of them were similar in relation to the establishment of the balanced governance system in the new version of the constitution, provision of solid constitutional guarantees for the independent judicial system and strengthening the local self-governance.