PARLIAMENTARY PANEL on the occasion of the SECOND PHASE OF THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

- Tunis, 17 November -

 

 

 

Senator Silvia Adriana ȚICĂU

Romanian IPU Group

 

TALKING POINTS

 

 

          The development of the new information and communication technologies (ICT) has prompted dramatic changes in many aspects of our parliamentary work: legislative process, in both form and contents; relations with the inter-institutional environment and other key actors within the society; relations between MPs and their respective constituents

 
 

          The Parliament of Romania has been increasingly using the ICTs to enhance its role in promoting a constructive exchange of information and dialogue with and among State entities, private sector and the civil society organizations. Such ICT-based interaction contributes also to an effective exercise by Parliament of its scrutiny function, and has a positive impact on its overall relations with Government and other public administration structures.

 

          A specialized Committee for ICTs has been set up in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies in 2000, whose area of responsibility covers issues such as: advanced technologies, legislative alignment to international regulations and standards, intellectual property.    

 

          The citizens’ right of access to information facilitates a meaningful engagement in governance by the public, thus being at the core of participatory and representative democracy. The main tools used by our Parliament to enhance the transparency of the law-making process and achieve a better knowledge by citizens of laws and of the parliamentary work, through the ICTs, are the websites of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

 

          It is worth mentioning that the web pages of the Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies allow the direct request of information and the transmission on-line of questions and petitions by citizens.

 

          A very encouraging and, at the same time, significant example of citizens’ involvement in the legislative process, using the parliamentary website, is related to the revision of the Romanian Constitution, two years ago. This process benefited from a substantial input from the civil society, by means of a Constitutional Forum, whose webpage and on-line forum - hosted on the website of the Chamber of Deputies - received more than 11.000 contributions from citizens.

 

          The Romanian Parliament has been constantly working to establish a legal framework that enable a good interaction between State institutions, the civil society, and the general public, as a means to support progress towards a sustainable and inclusive knowledge-based society. Parliamentary action in this area aims at including all people into the information society and at seeing to it that the opportunities of the information society are open for all.

 

          With respect to the citizens’ access to information, following intensive debates among all the Romanian political parties, with the active participation of the civil society, a series of legislative acts were adopted, the most relevant being the Law 544/2001 on the free access to the information of public interest, which contains special provisions on the freedom of and access to information. 

 

          The Senate and Chamber of Deputies in application of this law - which is published on their web pages - provide full access to information of public interest both ex officio and through their respective specialized Services for public relations and relations with mass media.

 

          In order to ensure the right to open consultations and to encourage public participation in the pre-legislative scrutiny, the texts of the draft laws are published on the web sites, and the works of Parliament, in general, are made accessible to citizens, via Internet.

 

          Mention can be made also of Law 161/2003 on certain measures to ensure transparency in the exercise of public dignities and functions, and in the business environment, for the prevention and sanctioning of corruption, which establishes, among others - in its Title II - Transparency in the administration of public information and services through electronic means - the objectives, principles, terms and conditions related to the electronic access to public information and services.

 

          It is important to highlight, as a general conclusion of our debates, the need to develop further inter-parliamentary cooperation and the exchanges of expertise and best practices among parliaments, in the following areas:

- the drafting and adoption of ITC-related legislation, including normative acts regulating the access to information;

- parliamentary scrutiny and budgetary action in relation to the ICTs;

- the full valorization, within and by Parliament, of the information opportunities offered by the ICTs, in the framework of its inter-institutional relations and of its dialogue with the civil society, as well as the practical modalities to achieve this, in terms of administration and management of human and financial resources;

- the setting up, the mandate and the functioning of specialized parliamentary bodies in the field of the ICTs, such as standing committees, as well as the development of cooperation between them, on bilateral and multilateral levels;

- the setting up and development of parliamentary data bases and platforms for electronic exchange of information, such as IPEX – Interparliamentary EU Information Exchange – which is designed to allow exchanges of EU-related information between parliaments of the European Union;

- the provision of technical assistance by digitally-advanced Parliaments, either directly, or in partnership with international actors involved in capacity-building programs, including the IPU.