Parliamentarians from the CIS countries approved a number of important model laws during the plenary session of the assembly.
The 55th plenary session of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member States was held at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg.
Opening the meeting, Chair of the IPA CIS Council and Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko greeted the parliamentary delegations from the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly member states, the heads of parliaments of the Commonwealth countries, representatives of the CIS sectoral bodies, partner international organisations and the diplomatic corps, heads of executive and legislative authorities of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, as well as a delegation from the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) led by its President Amado Cerrud Acevedo.
Valentina Matvienko reported on the Assembly bodies’ performance over the past six months and the events held during the reporting period such as conferences and forums. Ms Matvienko also spoke about the outcome of the IPA CIS Council meeting that was held the day before. “The Assembly completed implementation of the 2020–2022 Perspective Plan for Model Lawmaking in the CIS,” she said. “This major effort in the field of model lawmaking resulted in the IPA drafting and adopting 82 documents.” With account taken of the documents that were approved at the plenary session, the total number of model legislative acts and other regulatory documents will total 677. The IPA CIS Council Chair believes this to be an impressive result.
The Federation Council Speaker went on to say that the assembly’s legislative activity will grow and 135 documents will be reviewed over the next three years.
Valentina Matvienko said the assembly’s course of expanding the circle of experts participating in the IPA CIS’s activities was correct. Thus, the Expert Council on Science and Education is among the initiators of an international Olympiad in the humanities and social sciences for schoolchildren from the CIS countries. “In order to promote efforts in the expert domain, the IPA CIS Council approved members of the new Expert Council on Environment and Nature Management which was created six months ago. Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Stepan Kalmykov was approved as its chairman.”
The Federation Council Speaker emphasised the important role of the environmental efforts in the assembly’s activities. She reminded the audience about preparations for the Nevsky International Environmental Congress and the Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories forum. “The holding of the Nevsky Congress and the Mountain Forum is aimed primarily at developing recommendations and identifying priority and promising areas for lawmaking in the respective areas,” she said.
According to Valentina Matvienko, legal and regulatory support for addressing environmental issues and nature management has been a focus of the IPA CIS from the beginning of its activities. “Already in 1992, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly drafted and adopted the first non-regulatory environmental act “On the principles of environmental safety in the Commonwealth states,” she said. Since it was founded, the IPA has created over 70 documents, including model codes, model laws, recommendations, and agreements, as well as draft conventions dedicated to environmental protection. The assembly authored the Convention on Preserving Agrobiodiversity in the CIS Member States, which was adopted in 2016 by the Council of Heads of Government. A number of regulatory acts are devoted to addressing regional issues – say, documents related to the Caspian Sea remain relevant, primarily, for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia. “An enormous amount of substantive work has been done,” the Federation Council Speaker said.
The IPA CIS Council Chair went on to say that the portfolio of environmental documents, which are to be developed under the new Perspective Plan for Model Lawmaking, was also quite extensive.
Speaking about plans for 2023, Valentina Matvienko highlighted a decision by the Council of CIS Heads of State to declare the Year of the Russian Language as the Language of Interethnic Communication in the CIS. The initiative put forward by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to create an international organisation to support and promote the Russian language under the auspices of the CIS was supported. The Federation Council Speaker is confident that the IPA CIS, which is designed to promote international cooperation in various areas, should take an active part in creating and managing this organisation.
In addition, the Federation Council Speaker said that the international conference titled, “Russian language: The basis of an integration dialogue within the CIS region,” which is planned for the second half of this year, was a landmark event. “The Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council has begun preparations for this major event,” she said.
St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov greeted assembly participants and guests. “We are proud of the fact that St Petersburg has been home to the headquarters of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States for more than three decades now, which underscores the special role of our city in promoting relations between the CIS countries,” he said. “Time has shown that we have a common path which is based on a common past and on values that we inherited from our ancestors, such as integrity and decency, respect and mutual assistance,” he said.
Chair of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova noted the unique and authoritative nature of the assembly platform for promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
Chair of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Maulen Ashimbayev emphasised that over the years the IPA CIS has proven its effectiveness in discussing critical projects and initiatives in scientific, technical, economic and humanitarian cooperation between the commonwealth countries. According to Ashimbayev, the assembly is an excellent opportunity to build a constructive dialogue with various international parliamentary organisations.
President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Alen Simonyan noted the importance of using the Assembly to discuss environmental issues.
Chair of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbayeva addressed the participants via video message. She stressed that the assembly is a valuable international platform for cooperation between the CIS countries. Tanzila Narbayeva mentioned the assembly’s great contribution to improving the commonwealth countries’ legislation.
Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Martin Chungong noted in a video message that climate change affected all countries around the world. Now is the time to overcome challenges and to prevent future harm. According to Mr Chungong, the parliamentarians must assume special responsibility to protect the environment and to ensure the adoption of effective laws.
The remarks by President of the Central American Parliament Amado Cerrud Acevedo covered the prospects for inter-parliamentary cooperation with the IPA CIS.
Issues of improving the regulatory framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the field of the environment and nature management were covered by Speaker of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Natalya Kochanova, Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurlanbek Shakiyev, First Deputy Secretary General of the CIS Leonid Anfimov, and First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov.
Deputy Chair of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Environment and member of the Federation Council Committee on Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management Viktor Novozhilov discussed the three model law drafts.
Presenting a revised version of the model law “On Access to Environmental Information,” the senator noted that this document had to be developed in view of the adoption in 1998 of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, which most of the CIS member states have ratified and have brought their environmental legislation into compliance. “The proposed model regulates relations in ensuring every person’s right to receive reliable environmental information in a timely manner and determines the legal framework and procedure for providing and disseminating environmental information,” Viktor Novozhilov said.
Submitting the draft model law “On Environmental Funds” for consideration, the parliamentarian pointed out that the document contained provisions on the procedure for their formation and the main areas for spending these funds. “Implementation of the provisions of the proposed model into national legislation will make it possible to develop recommendations for ensuring the targeted nature of spending the funds received as environmental payments to restore and improve the quality of the environment,” Viktor Novozhilov said.
According to the parliamentarian, the purpose of the draft model law “On Beekeeping” is to unify and promote legal mechanisms for protecting beekeeping and honey bees, to preserve biological diversity, to ensure the freedom of movement of labour, goods, services and capital in the sphere of beekeeping in the CIS member states. “At this point, beekeeping is one of the key agricultural sub-sectors which plays an important role in ensuring food security and conserving biological diversity,” Viktor Novozhilov said.
Andrei Yepishin, a member of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Economy and Finance and Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on the Budget and Financial Markets spoke about changes to the model Tax Code. In particular, the senator covered the revised Chapter 3 “Special Taxation Regulations. Simplified Taxation System” and Chapter 3.1 “Special Taxation Regime. Patent-Based Taxation System.”
The draft “Recommendations on the legal regulation of the use of artificial intelligence, including ethical standards for research and development” which was prepared in accordance with the 2020–2022 Perspective Plan for Model Lawmaking in the CIS was presented by Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture Lilia Gumerova. She said the draft is based on an assessment of the current level of development of artificial intelligence systems and an analysis of the legislation of the CIS member states. “The purpose of these recommendations is to offer coordinated guidelines for forming a system of legal and ethical standards designed to promote the development and use of AI systems in the commonwealth states with an emphasis on ensuring the rights of citizens and the security of identity, society and the state,” the senator said.
The head of the Federation Council Committee noted that the document had passed all phases of review during the meetings of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Science and Education and was submitted to the relevant committees and commissions of the parliaments of the CIS member states. The comments and suggestions obtained during the work on the project were taken into account. “The adoption of the recommendations will help coordinate the national legislations of the CIS member states and promote common approaches to forming national AI legislation and will serve as the basis for developing corresponding national regulatory acts,” Lilia Gumerova said.
During the plenary session, the draft model laws “On Digital Transformation of the Industries in the CIS Member States,” “On Specially Protected Natural Territories,” “On Protecting Consumer Rights,” “On Environmental Safety,” “On Combating Cybercrime,” “On Investment and Trust Management Banking,” “On Digital Healthcare,” to name a few, were reviewed
An awards ceremony was held as part of the plenary session. In accordance with the Presidential Executive Order, the Federation Council Speaker presented the Order of Friendship to Vice President of the Central American Parliament, a citizen of the Republic of Nicaragua, Guillermo Daniel Ortega Reyes for his important contribution to strengthening inter-parliamentary cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Central American countries.
The IPA CIS Medal “For Strengthening Parliamentary Cooperation” was awarded to Chair of the Committee for Social and Cultural Development and Science of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurtore Zhusip and member of the Committee for Defence, Security and Combating Corruption of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan and member of the Committee for Labour and Social Policy of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan Arzu Nasib oglu Naghiyev.
A silver medal The Tree of Life from the IPA CIS and the Interstate TV and Radio Company Mir was awarded to the St Petersburg Committee for External Relations.
Aide to the Chair of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ainur Myulatif gazy Nurakhmedova and Chair of the Permanent Commission on International Affairs and National Security of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Sergei Rachkov, as well as the international television and radio company Mir were awarded the certificate of merit of the IPA CIS Council.
Anniversary medal “IPA CIS. 30th Anniversary” was awarded to Executive Secretary of CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and Head of the organisation’s Secretariat Sergei Pospelov and Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council Alexei Dolzhikov.