Prague, Dec 30 (CTK) – The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, has passed 162 bills out of almost 400 it has received since the beginning of the election term and is yet to deal with some 170 bills in various phases of reading.
MPs rejected almost 30 bills and about the same number was withdrawn by their proposers. However, other bills are being sent to the lower house in the meantime.
The opposition politicians sometimes complain that their bills are mostly not debated at all, while deputies prefer the government bills.
However, even some bills submitted by the centre-left government of the Social Democrats (CSSD), ANO and Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) have not been dealt with yet.
Some 70 bills have not been debated in the first reading yet, for instance, an amendment to the constitution submitted by the opposition TOP 09 and Mayors deputies in April 2014, that would enable to release a lawmaker for prosecution even without the parliament´s consent.
The bill waiting for the lower house´s decision for the longest time is the Prague Assembly´s proposal for regulating prostitution in the capital. It is to go through the second reading now.
A tax agreement with Kosovo has not been approved yet since the opposition Communists (KSCM) and some Social Democrats do not agree with the recognition of Kosovo. The Senate, the upper house, passed it in April.
On the contrary, deputies finally passed the bill to introduce the register of contracts after two years. It was submitted to the lower house in 2013.
The Chamber of Deputies has not yet completed a debate on some government bills, such as a bill to extend the ombudsman´s powers by the power to file public lawsuits over discrimination and proposals for the abolition of bills with the Constitutional Court. The draft legislation has been in the lower house since January.
The government´s draft amendment to the constitution to limit some presidential powers has not mdke it through the first reading yet.
An amendment to the law on income tax to increase tax deductions for children was not passed by the end of the year. It should take effect next year. This is why the budget committee had to add a provision enabling its retroactive effect to the bill.
The highest number of bills, 233 as of December 22, was submitted by the government, 130 by deputies, 11 by senators and seven by regional authorities during this election term.
