Kochanova: 92% of regulatory legal acts brought into line with updated Constitution

Almost 92 percent of regulatory legal acts have been brought into line with the updated Constitution – as informed by Natalya Kochanova, the Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of Belarus’ National Assembly, commenting on the results of her today’s report to President Aleksandr Lukashenko

During the report to the Head of State, Natalya Kochanova noted that the Upper House of Parliament is working very seriously in all areas outlined by the President, “Work on draft laws is very important for us. Over the past period, we have reviewed 305 regulatory legal acts, draft laws, and more than 100 already since early 2023. I want to inform that almost 92 percent of the documents have been brought into line with the updated Constitution.”

In her talk with journalists, Ms. Kochanova added that the policy-making work is progressing in line with the schedule, “Literally several bills are left, and they will be adopted in the near future.”

According to the Chairperson of the Council of the Republic, the Expert Council plays a very important role, since it is actually ‘a legal filter’ ensuring a comprehensive review of the drafts of the most important regulatory legal acts and an assessment of the consequences of their adoption.

“Not only the Expert Council functions within the Council of the Republic structure: there are also the Expert Advisory Council and the Council for Interaction with Local Self-Government Bodies. We see that these are effective structures. Over two years, more than 100 meetings of the Expert Council have been held to consider all regulatory legal acts that are further submitted to the President for signing. I would like to note that we have accepted only a third of them without comments. Basically, there are either comments, or we believe that it is inappropriate to adopt certain documents at the present time – since they are either irrelevant or do not correspond to the approaches that exist in our country,” Ms. Kochanova explained.

The Chairperson of the Council of the Republic added that ordinary citizens may also take part in the Expert Council’s work if they are interested and have something to propose in relation to a particular topic.