Councilors who are absent from meeting risk losing seat
- 27.10.2011 12:33
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The councilors who will not attend three consecutive meetings, either of the council or of the standing commissions of which they form part, may remain without seat. The provision is contained in a bill that was passed by the legislature in first reading, Info-Prim Neo reports.
”Article 5, paragraph (2) of the Law on the Status of the Local Council says the councilors are deprived of seat if they are absent from three consecutive meetings of the council or of the commissions of which they form part without reason. But this provision was omitted by Article 24 of the Law on the Local Public Administration. As a result of such non-concordance, the activity of many local councils was inefficient as a quorum was not present at the meetings. In some of the territorial-administrative units, a number of councilors left the country after being confirmed to posts and took part in no meeting,” said the author of the bill, Liberal-Democrat MP Tudor Deliu.
He also said that it is now impossible to remove a councilor before term because under the Law on Legislative Acts, if a conflict of norms that suggests different solutions to the same regulated issue appears between two legislative acts with the same legal force, there are implemented the provisions of the latter act. “The inclusion of such an amendment will make the activity of the local councils more efficient and will make the councilors more responsible,” said Tudor Deliu.
The discussions on the bill resulted in an exchange of harsh replies between the Liberal-Democrat, Communist and Liberal lawmakers. Liberal MP Victor Popa, who heads the legal commission for appointments and immunities, said such a provision runs counter to the democratic norms, while the Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu stressed the councilors can be deprived of seat only by the voters as they gave it to them.
The bill will be submitted to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe for examination before debating it in second reading.
