SLOVAKIA’S parliament adopted 139 new laws or revisions to existing laws in 2011. The cabinet of Iveta Radičová submitted 122 of those legislative initiatives while 13 were prepared by MPs and four came from parliamentary committees, Darina Jahelková from the Slovak parliament’s communication department told the SITA newswire in early January.
Parliament considered 234 pieces of legislation during the course of the year and 129 of those bills came from the cabinet, 102 were offered by MPs and parliamentary committees advanced three. Jahelková said that the low number of adopted bills prepared by MPs was due to four postponements since July. Most of these bills have not gone through their second reading and cannot be adopted before the parliamentary elections on March 10.
Parliament used fast-track legislative procedures 16 times in 2011 to consider and then pass bills into law.
President Ivan Gašparovič used his veto power 22 times by returning the adopted legislation to parliament with comments, but in 20 cases parliament passed the legislation a second time and it became law. Another veto was overridden in February.
The only veto that was not overridden by parliament last year dealt with the state’s contribution to the country’s housing construction saving scheme.
5. Mar 2012 at 0:00 | Compiled by Spectator staff
