The announcement by Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova of the extraordinary spring session open at its first plenum held on 17 June was followed by the sounds of the National Anthem and then, the Assembly responded to the agenda.

The issues du jour were discussed after the agenda’s approval. The speakers were the parliamentary committee chairs Hijran Huseynova and Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Razi Nurullayev, Elman Nasirov, Hikmat Mammadov, Azer Badamov, Naghif Hamzayev, Ali Masimli and Aydin Mirzazade.

The MPs commented on the international conference Azerbaijani-Turkish Strategic Alliance as a Guarantee of Peace and Stability in the Caucasus and the Region, held in Shusha on 15 June to mark the first anniversary of the Shusha Declaration. They also talked about the 9^th Global Baku Forum Challenges to the Global World Order. They praised the theses on the modern challenges and the ideas about solidifying peace around the world and in the region, uttered by the President of Azerbaijan in his speech there. They talked about the importance of such international events and broached the issues of their electors, the social protection of the shahid families, gazies and people with disabilities and a number of relevant matters.

Presentations and deliberations by the agenda of the plenum followed. Sahiba Gafarova announced the plenum as consisting of 16 items.

She presented Item I being a draft resolution of the parliament to modify the previous resolution ‘On Electing the Heads of the Inter-Parliamentary Connexions Working Groups of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic’. The overview of this was given by the chairman of the International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee Samad Seyidov who mentioned the fruitful international endeavours of the 6^th-convention Parliament and underscored the importance of tapping the opportunities provided by parliamentary diplomacy rationally to communicate the Azerbaijani realia to the global community and to strengthen our international relations.

The draft resolution envisages creation of a working group to take care of the Azerbaijan-Paraguay inter-parliamentary connexions, meaning, it is about the important business of strengthening our links with that country situated in the heart of Latin America where the Armenian Diaspora commands strong positions, according to MP Seyidov. Besides, Paraguay has supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan without fail and the Paraguayan Parliament recognised the Khojali Genocide. The deputy chairman of the defence, security and counter-corruption committee Hikmat Mammadov is proposed as the head of the new inter-parliamentary working group, MP Seyidov announced.

Malahat Ibrahimghizi made her remarks about the draft resolution following the presentation by MP Seyidov and then the document was voted on and approved subsequently.

Sahiba Gafarova said then that the following three agenda items were Bills in the third reading, again, received from the Head of State in one communication. It is decided to follow the presentations regarding those topically interlinked Bills by complex deliberations and separate votes.

Item II being amendments to the Electrical Energy Law was tabled by Iltizam Yusifov of the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee who said they were meant to optimise the legislation on heat supplies and there had been no objections or suggestions following the previous two readings or after them.

Item II was a Bill containing amendments to the laws ‘On Regulation of Business Enterprise Checks and Protection of Enterprisers’ Interests’ and ‘On the Suspension of Business Enterprise Checks’. The chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili said that they would introduce the application of the same legal inspection regime o heat energy as is applied to the other energy-related services and utilities. MP Mirkishili repeated that the MPs had made no suggestions or critical remarks at the previous readings, MP Mirkishili urged the House to support the draft law.

The relevant favourable conclusion of the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee was presented by its member Iltizam Yusifov.

The House then moved on to Item IV, namely, amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences, which were tabled by Nizami Safarov of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee. He said that the amendments had not undergone any change during the preceding readings.

The favourable opinion regarding this Bill stated by the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee was brought forward by the committee member Iltizam Yusifov, again.

All the three Bills containing amendments were voted through the third reading one by one then.

Going further, the Chair of the Milli Majlis brought up for consideration the draft amendments to the Law ‘On the State Border of the Azerbaijan Republic’ saying that those were on the unifying side and would be passed in one reading in line with the Law ‘On Regulatory Legal Acts’ therefore.

It was the chairman of the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee Ziyafet Asgarov who covered this agenda item. He told the House that since the executive authority stipulated in Article 25 of the State Border Law had been assigned to the public legal entity The State Maritime and Ports Agency of the auspices of the Digital Development and Transport Ministry of Azerbaijan pursuant to the presidential decree dated 11 October 2021, it is proposed to replace the word ‘organ’ with the wording ‘organ (entity) designated by the organ’ in the disposition of the article in question therefore.

The amendments were voted in subsequently.

The Chair of the Parliament said next that the other 11 items on the agenda were the second-reading Bills and that Item VI was a set of amendments to the law ‘On the Execution of the 2021 State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic’. Madame Speaker gave the floor to the chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili.

The draft law at issue and the annual report on the 2021 State Budget’s execution, also submitted for consideration of the Milli Majlis, had been drawn up in keeping with the legislative provisions whilst the 2021 State Budget proper had been executed in compliance with the strategic development priorities defined by President Ilham Aliyev, the socio-economic policy and the security challenges in place. MP Mirkishili said that his committee had considered the last-year budgetary performance and proceeded to tell the House about those discussions, adding that there had been substantial presentations made by the attending officials of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the Compulsory Medical Insurance Agency – those three had accounted for sizeable portions of the 2021 State Budget’s expenses. Besides, the MPs who are members of the same committee had discussed more broadly the result-based Budget in the context of its medium-term expenses.

The committee chairman said that the Budget’s revenues and expenses had been covered enough during the previous readings of the Bill and emphasised the overall successfulness of the year 2021 in terms of socio-economic development as well as the fact that the last-year State Budget had been carried out with due regard to the post COVID-19 pandemic and post-Patriotic War restoration efforts. The added value generated by the oil and non-oil sectors had made 1.8% and 7.2% respectively whereas the real GDP growth rate had settled at 5.6% as against the 3.4% forecast for the report year.

Also last year, the exports had exceeded the imports by USD 12.2 bn; the consolidated FX reserves of the country had risen by USD 2.5 bn to USD 53 bn having been six times the foreign debt, which, in turn, had slid by USD 685.8 mn to USD 8 bn 135 mn or 14.9% of the GDP as at the year-end. The State Budget revenues had made AZN 26 bn 396.3 mn as against the projected AZN 25 bn 427 mn and had been AZN 969.3 mn or 3.8% up on the annual forecast.

Of the approved budgetary expenditure equalling AZN 28 bn 543 mn, AZN 27 bn 422.4 mn or 96.1% had been sent factually with the current and capital expenditures and the cost of servicing the state debt and liabilities having made 60.5%. 31.5% and 8% of the total in this sequence exactly. The social spending had made 37.5% of the aggregate expenditure last year. Besides, the education, defence and security, melioration, food security and sciences spending had accounted for 96.7%, 99.2%, 98.7% 97.3% and 84.6% of the dedicated allocations respectively whilst 99% of the targeted AZN 2 bn 200 mn had been spent on the restoration of the de-occupied territories of the country.

When deliberations followed, First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis Ali Huseynli, the committee chairmen Siyavush Novruzov and Zahid Oruj as well as the MPs Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Razi Nurullayev, Vugar Bayramov, Tahir Karimli, Vahid Ahmadov and Etibar Aliyev felt it necessary to express their thoughts about the budgetary indications, the accomplished tasks and the spending of the dedicated allocations last year.

Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov commented on the matters broached by the legislators and answered their remarks. In his turn, Minister Sharifov told the House that the year 2021 had been successful for the country and the nation in the socio-economic terms, what with the international reputation of the country having grown further, the financial stances of the state having become stronger and the projects put on the national agenda and financed with public funds having been carried into life. The COVID-19 vaccination, the easing-off of the pandemic-related restraints and crude oil prices climbing in world markets had given birth to such a domestic and external macroeconomic environment that had made the speedy economic recovery observed last year possible. The interwoven pursuit of the monetary and fiscal policies as well as the stable of rate of exchange of the national currency had provided not only for a recovery but also a growth of the national economy. Mr Sharifov told the Milli Majlis that all the earmarked tasks had been accomplished with the funds released from the State Budget.

The Bill on the execution of the 2021 State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic was adopted in the second reading then.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova said whilst introducing Item VII – the amendments to the Alyat Free Economic Zone Law – that a group of MPs led by the chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili had gone to the Alyat FEZ and had obtained the hands-on knowledge of the situation and the work going on there on 2 June. Mrs Gafarova emphasised how important that visit was for clarifying the essence of the proposed legislative amendments and, in general, of the specific features of the FEZ.

The relevant overview was given by the said Tahir Mirkishili who told the Assembly that they were predominantly to regulate the adoption of a tax and customs regime for Azerbaijani companies when they sell goods and render services in the FEZ or undertake non-manufacturing operations there. The main goal is to let such Azerbaijani business people enjoy the rights equal to those granted to overseas enterprises.

The Bill was voted in.

Item VIII of the plenum’s agenda was about amendments to the Investment Operations Law, tabled, again by Tahir Mirkishili who said that the document followed the presidential decree ‘On Certain Measures to Promote Investment Activities and Protect the Rights of Overseas Investors’. Those almost 20 suggestions that the people’s deputies had made at the first reading had been discussed with the legislation initiator; 7 of the suggestions were noted duly in the end.

The House voted the Bill through the current reading.

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis/head of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli brought to the attention of the assembly a set of amendments to the Code of Administrative Procedure, the Code of Administrative Offences, the Criminal Code and the Law ‘On Citizens’ Applications’.

With these amendments’ adoption, the said corpuses and the law will be aligned with the already-enacted Law ‘On the Rules of Employment of the Legislative Initiative by the Citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic’.

The Milli Majlis voted for the Bill’s adoption in the second reading.

Sahiba Gafarova announced the next four agenda items, which she said had arrived from the Head of State in one parcel and were akin topically. The Items 10^th to the 13^th were the second-reading sets of amendments to the Civil Code, the Code of Administrative Offences, the National Archive Fund Law and the Law ‘On the State Registration of Legal Persons and the State Register’. All those compendia had been considered at the dedicated meetings of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee and the Culture Committee, according to Mrs Gafarova.

Those amendments are linked to Item 12 being amendments to the National Archive Fund Law and were drawn up in consequence to the latter. Therefore, a presentation of the chair of the Culture Committee Ganira Pashayeva about the NAF Law was heard first.

Ganira Pashayeva said that the MPs who had spoken at the first reading had backed the Bill the amendments wherein were meant to promote the development of the NAF and to optimise its work. MP Pashayeva said she was certain that the amendments were going to be a considerable prop to such a strategic area as the NAF’s work represents, and would be a great help in strengthening the social protection of the Fund’s personnel.

Nizami Safarov of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee tabled the separate sets of amendments to the Civil Code, to the Code of Administrative Offences and to the Law ‘On the State Registration of Legal Persons and the State Register’. He said that there had been no critical remarks or suggestions in their regard.

Those Bills were voted through the second reading one by one following Ganira Pashayeva’s replies to the comments made by MP Etibar Aliyev.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova said next that the remaining three agenda items, too, had been submitted to the Milli Majlis by the President and were interrelated thematically as well. The amendments contained therein followed the Law on Human Organ Donations and Transplantation.

The overview of the Items 14 and 15 containing amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences was given by Kamal Jafarov of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee. The drafts concerning administrative and criminal penalties for violation of the legislation on human organs and tissues donations had been discussed in every detail at the previous reading; no suggestions or critical remarks had been made, MP Jafarov told the House.

The chairman of the Health Committee Ahliman Amiraslanov came up with the Bill of amending the laws ‘On Protection of the Population Health’, ‘On the List of Items Not Subject to Civil Circulation (excluded from the civil circulation)’, ‘On Combatting Trade in Humans’ and ‘On Advertising’. MP Amiraslanov told the colleagues that those changes were unifying in nature and, in response to the considerations about executing the law made at the first reading, he told the House about the work done to that end so far. The Organ Donation and Transplantation Centre of the Ministry of Health had been established in execution of the law; also, a package of documents including provisions regarding diagnosing brain death had been put together. Besides, MP Amiraslanov said, it was planned to take action to prepare future’s transplantation clinics and to train organ and tissue transplantation specialists.

The head of the Human Rights Committee Zahid Oruj and the head of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili presented the relevant favourable opinion statements of their committees, and MP Aydin Huseynov offered his commentary before all those three Bills were voted through the second reading one by one, which was the end of the first plenum of the extraordinary session of the Milli Majlis.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis