DUSHANBE, October 23, 2014, Asia-Plus — Ubaidullo Davlatov, Head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on State Construction and Self-Governance, is participating in a two-day session of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPA) Permanent Commission on Studying the Experience of State Construction and Self-Governance.
Muhammadato Sultonov, a spokesman for the Majlisi Namoyandagon says the Commission is discussing draft module laws on the procedure of participation of local authorities in border cooperation, the status of elected official of local authorities, and the general principles of organization of local government.
The Commission is also discussing new edition of module law on the general principles of organization of local finance, Sultonov said.
The CIS IPA includes the delegations of the parliaments of the CIS countries and operates on the basis of consensus (where each delegation is assigned one vote). It also includes a number of standing committees, engaged in individual areas of regulation, and has a standing governing body coordinating its activity: the Council (CIS), which simply includes the presidents of the national parliaments.
The activity of the IPA concentrates on the development of the model acts, which could then voluntarily be implemented by the member countries (but have no direct legal power neither have to be implemented on the mandatory basis) and are therefore simply a tool of (at least, potentially) dissemination of the best practices in the CIS.
The IPA is not empowered to control the officials of the regional integration institution in any manner and does not seem to have any power directly influencing its decision-making. There are two main groups of documents passed by this institution: the “model acts” (which have been mentioned above) and the recommendations for the member parliaments and the CIS institutions, which, however, have no binding power.
