The assembly hall of parliament (source: TASR)
This stems from a proposal by coalition MPs Martin Glváč of Smer, Tibor Bernaťák of the Slovak National Party (SNS), Gábor Gál of Most-Híd and Andrej Hrnčiar of Sieť.
“[A change in the] rules of order would introduce the obligation to carry out a comments procedure vis-a-vis proposals submitted by MPs and committees,” reads the proposal, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “Only bills that passed to their second reading would need to be discussed in a comments procedure.”
The parliamentary committees will discuss the drafts only after the public comment period.
Now, bills are discussed in the parliament in three readings. If a bill passes to its second reading, it is discussed and can be amended by parliamentary committees. At the third reading no major changes can be made, only technical adjustments.
The public usually cannot directly comment on proposals. People can express their opinion via MPs, who can accept the public inputs and include them in their comments for the second reading, TASR reported.
