The Milli Majlis committee for law policy and state-building held an online meeting on 30 October. The Committee Chairman Ali Huseynli presented the three items on the agenda of the meeting.

First, Mr Huseynli spoke of the second reading of the Bill of Amendments to the Forest Code, the Land Code, the Civil Code and the laws ‘On Land Reforms’, ‘On the Land Market’, ‘On the Administration of Municipal Lands’, ‘On the State Duty’, ‘On the State Real Estate Register’ and ‘On Cession of Land for State Needs.’ He told the gathered committee members that the Bill had been drawn up for the purposes of the enforcement of the Law No 1438-VQD ‘On the Amendments to the Civil Code of the Azerbaijan Republic’ dated 28 December 2018.

It being in keeping with the Civil Code, both encumbrance and mortgage are the equipotent forms of limiting the rights in rem but the ‘encumbrance’ term is applied to movable property whilst the ‘mortgage’ applies to real estate and such movable property as is subject to the entry into the official register. To this end, it is proposed to amend accordingly the Forest Code, the Land Code and the laws ‘On Land Reforms’, ‘On the Land Market’ and ‘On the Administration of Municipal Lands’. To wit, the word ‘encumbrance’ shall be replaced with the word ‘mortgage’ where applicable therein.

It was noted further that since land parcels, buildings and edifices, residential and non-residential sites, private and villatic houses, subsurface resource allotments, water basins, forests and perennial plantations as well as such enterprises as are deemed property complexes are regarded as real estate units, it had been proposed to amend Article 139-1.1.5 of the Civil Code correspondingly therefore.

As regards the proposed amendment to the Law ‘On the Land Market’, then, the special conditions of placing mortgaged lands on the market shall be subject to the provisions and regulations of the Mortgage Law.

Next, the Committee Chairman presented the second reading of the draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Status of the Military Servicemen,’ ‘On Protection of the Population’s Health’, ‘On Motoring Traffic’, ‘On the Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care’, ‘On Motoring Roads’, ‘On Private Medical Practice’, ‘On the Civil Service’, ‘On Psychiatric Aid’, ‘On Oncological Aid’ and ‘On Limiting the Consumption of Tobacco Products.’ It was specified that the instrument in question had been drawn up in connection with the enforcement of the Law No 1718-VQD ‘On Amending the Law “On Medical Insurance” of the Azerbaijan Republic”’ dated 3 December 2019.

Chairman Huseynli remarked that, in connection to the transition to the medical insurance, health services to the persons holding the compulsory medical insurance would be provided at the expense of the compulsory medical insurance fees paid by them in the cases assigned in the pertinent medical service package and at the expense of the State Budget in other cases. Therefore, the aforementioned laws are to be amended correspondingly. Furthermore, several laws are to be amended so as to ensure the terminology unification and concretisation.

Mr Huseynli proceeded to present the first reading of the Bill of Amendments to the Law ‘On the Civil Service’ of the Azerbaijan republic. The Chairman said that a portion of the proposed draft amendments would define the foundation for assigning the next-in-row qualification degrees exclusive of the requirements put to civil servants. Besides, the said portion also lays down the conditions upon which appointments shall be made to elevated administrative positions and defines the cases in which lower qualification degrees may be assigned. The other draft amendments are concerned with the consideration of the specialist, military and diplomatic ranks of civil servants when the latter are assigned their qualification degrees.

It is also proposed to refine the existing Article 30.1 ‘Assessment of the Performance of Civil Servants’ in that its new edition – differently from the current one – would define the categories of civil servants who do not require their performance to be assessed and put forth the important criteria whereby final assessment marks shall be given. 

It was recommended at the end of the meeting to table the discussed Bills for consideration at the plenary session of the Milli Majlis.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis