After almost five years of work of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government on legal solutions which would improve the accountability and transparency of public administration, but also strengthen the independence of the institutions of the Protector of Citizens and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the National Assembly has adopted today the Law on the Protector of Citizens and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.
Both laws contain numerous proposals, recommendations and views of citizens, interested Civil Society Organizations, OECD/EU SIGMA experts, but also of the institutions of the Protector of Citizens and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, who have actively participated in drafting of these legal solutions.
In drafting these laws, the Ministry was guided by the Venice Principles on the Protection and Promotion of the Ombudsman Institution, the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents – the Tromsø Convention, the Principles of Public Administration of the European Commission, as well as the remarks and proposals that have appeared in practice thus far.
Both laws shall introduce numerous novelties, like the independence of the Protector of Citizens in terms of appointing deputies and organizing his professional service, while a special novelty is that both the Protector and the Commissioner shall be elected following a public call by the Speaker of the National Assembly, for a term of eight years, without the possibility of re-election.
The Law on Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, among other novelties, promotes the publication of information on a proactive basis, expands the scope of persons and authorities covered by the law, and prevents abuses of rights by filing of misdemeanor charges without prior filing of complaints before the Commissioner.