Speaker Sahiba Gafarova chaired a scheduled spring-session sitting of the Milli Majlis on 23 February.

The current issues were discussed first. The MPs Sevinj Fataliyeva, Nigyar Arpadarai, Mushfig Mammadli, Hijran Huseynova, Azer Badamov, Ramil Hasan, Ali Masimli, Zahid Oruj, Mushfig Jafarov, Tahir Karimli, Fazil Mustafa and Javid Osmanov commented on the matters that concern the constituents and made a number of relevant remarks and proposals.

Mrs Gafarova said then that the agenda contained 22 items and that the item one was the draft resolution of the Milli Majlis regarding appointment of a member of the Judicial and Legal Council of the Azerbaijan Republic. It follows from Article 6 of the Law on the Judicial and Legal Council that the Milli Majlis is to appoint one of its members, Madame Chair explained. MP and Chairman of the parliamentary Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee Ziyafet Asgarov has represented the Milli Majlis on the Council with distinction these five years past, Madame Chair added before thanking Mr Asgarov for the fruitful work.

Now, however, the Milli Majlis is to appoint a new Judicial and Legal Council member by rotation; MP Nizami Safarov is nominated as the candidate to take over that position.

Nizami Safarov is a prominent scientist, an experienced jurist, a D. J. S., an author of monographs and articles on jurisprudence. He worked as a researcher and a department head at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan and occupied various positions at the Ministry of Justice. Having joined the Staff of the Milli Majlis in 1994 and served in it until 2019, Mr Safarov had headed the Administrative and Military Legislation Department for longer than 20 years and in February 2020 he was elected as an MP of the sixth-convocation Milli Majlis. Mr Safarov is a member of the parliamentary committees for Law Policy and State-Building and for Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption; besides, he is on the Disciplinary Commission of the Milli Majlis.

MP Razi Nurullayev commented on this matter, after which the House voted in favour of the draft resolution appointing N A Safarov as a member of the Judicial and Legal Council of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The second agenda item was the Bill on ratification of the interstate memorandum of understanding between the Azerbaijan Republic and Turkmenistan about exploration, development and exploitation of the hydrocarbon resources of the shelf (offshore) oil and gas condensate field ‘Dostlug’ in the Caspian Sea. Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Sadig Gurbanov made the MPs aware of the Bill, which, he observed, was based on the international legal norms and would cause the prosperity of the Azerbaijani and Turkmen nations to improve further when enacted. A stand-alone agreement will be drawn and then signed to that end, too, Mr Gurbanov added.

Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for International Relations and Interparliamentary Connections Samad Seyidov shared his consideration of the memorandum, too. He argued that the document, a historic one, as a matter of fact, marked a diplomatic coup for both Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Besides, this arrangement serves the strategic agenda of Azerbaijan, he stated.

The memorandum of understanding was put on vote and approved subsequently.

Madame Chair told the House that the next 11 items on the agenda were the Bills to be heard in the third reading.

First Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Ali Huseynli presented an overview of the Constitutional Bill (in the third reading) on amending the Constitutional Law of the Azerbaijan Republic ‘On Legal and Regulatory Instruments’. The House had been sufficiently informed of this matter during the previous readings; the legislative amendment ensues from the progress of the legal system of Azerbaijan, according to Mr Huseynli.

The Constitutional Bill to amend the Constitutional Law of the Azerbaijan Republic ‘On Legal and Regulatory Instruments’ was put on vote and approved in the third reading.

Madame Speaker remarked then that, pursuant to the Constitution, the Milli Majlis voted on all the constitutional bills twice and they were submitted to the President of the Azerbaijan Republic for signing after both the first and the second readings and became laws after the second vote. So, the constitutional bill at hand is to be submitted to the esteemed President Ilham Aliyev for signature and the Parliament will re-table it in six months, as Mrs Gafarova clarified.

The third reading of the draft amendments to the Military Duty and Service Law followed, Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Ziyafet Asgarov recalling that the draft had been taken favourably at the first and the second readings. The principal goal of the amendments is to equalise the legal status of inductees: the service determent that baccalaureate and master students enjoy as it is will now be also be granted to PhD students.

The MPs Malahat Ibrahimghizi and Azay Guliyev shared their opinions about this agenda item; then, the Bill was voted through the third reading.

Chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili tabled the third reading of the amendments to the Tax Code, pointing it out to the colleagues that the main goals there were to ensure food security in the country, make the fiscal policy more transparent and carry out further steps in public healthcare. The third reading of the document incorporates many of the remarks MPs made during the previous readings.

The Bill was then voted for in the third reading.

After that, Madame Chair told the House that the next two agenda items were interrelated in their import: those were the third-reading draft amendments to the to the Lists of the Controlled, Limited-Circulation and Monitored Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and Precursors Licensable for Importation, Exportation, Transit Transportation and Production within the Territory of the Azerbaijan Republic and the transit transportation of which across, and production in the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic and the Lists of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the Quantities Thereof, Including Substantial Ones, Sufficient for Incrimination and Criminal Prosecution [both enacted pursuant to two Laws of the Azerbaijan Republic dated 28 June 2005].

The member of the Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Amina Agazade who gave an overview of the subject said that the amendments were going to add to the pertaining laws and lists the names of new narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances so that their traffic would be outlawed and would result in criminal prosecution of perpetrators. Mrs Agazade also commented on the opinions about the amendments that had been voiced during the previous plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis. Then, both documents were voted in once after another.

The following two items on the agenda are interrelated thematically as well, Madame Chair then said.

Member of the Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Kamal Jafarov told the MPs of the draft amendments (both in the third reading) to the Motor Traffic Law and to the Code of Administrative Offences. According to MP Jafarov, the principal goal of both packages is to adjust and improve the traffic safety rules.

The Bills were voted through the third reading one by one afterwards.

Nurlan Hasanov, a member of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building, tabled for the third reading the draft amendments to the Law on the Notaries, saying that they had been drawn up to alleviate the situation of the citizens of the country. The MPs approved the Bill in the third reading.

Next came up for the third reading the draft amendments to the State Duty as presented to the House by Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Ali Masimli. The proposed reduction or lifting of certain notary fees was a very good initiative, Mr Masimli emphasised before the Bill was voted for, and was approved in the third reading.

The introductory word on the third reading of the Bill to amend the Unemployment Insurance Law was delivered by Mahir Abbaszade, a member of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee of the Milli Majlis. Once the package was enacted, the unemployment insurance compensations would begin to be assigned using the centralised electronic information system of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population.

The Bill was put on vote and approved in the third reading.

It was Chair of the parliamentary Culture Committee Ganira Pashayeva who briefed the House on the draft amendment (in the third reading) to the Law ‘On the Copyright and the Neighbouring Rights’. She said that, when in legal force eventually, the amendments would create a state registration mechanism applicable to Azerbaijani folklore compositions and traditional popular knowledge pieces now in the public domain. Besides, the amended law will make it possible to apply royalty fees for use of the government-registered compositions and pieces to the pursuit of the state policy concerned with the copyright and the neighbouring rights.

This Bill was put on vote duly; the MPs approved its third reading.

That, Madame Speaker concluded, was all as far as the third-reading Bills were concerned; and now for the next two items on the agenda, which, again, are interrelated subject-wise.

A member of the Regional Affairs Committee Sattar Mehbaliyev tabled the next two agenda items. He said that the Bill ‘On Certain Changes in the Administrative Territorial Organisation of the Sharur and Sadarak Provinces of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic’ envisaged the transfer of the Demirchi village of the rural administrative district by the same name from its current Sharur Administrative Province to the Sadarak one. Accordingly, the Demirchi Rural Administrative District is to be re-subordinated from the Sharur Province to the Sadarak Province. The 4,444 hectares of state-owned land within the administrative territory of the Sharur Province are to be made part of the administrative territory of the Sadarak Province, too. Mr Mehbaliyev explained that that had brought about corresponding adjustments in The List of the Municipalities of the Azerbaijan Republic appended to the Municipal Territories and Lands Law of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The said changes are intended to streamline governance, address the territorial units’ social and economic problems and further the qualitative improvement of the interaction between citizens and state authorities.

MP Jabi Guliyev let his ideas about the Bills known. Then, they were put on vote and approved one after another.

A member of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Nurlan Hasanov delivered the reference on the draft amendments to the Civil Code of the Azerbaijan Republic. As he specified, they had been prepared to concretise and unify certain components of the Code.

The Bill was voted for and approved subsequently.

Informing the participants of the draft amendments (in the first reading) to the Labour Code, a member of the Milli Majlis Labour and Social Policy Committee Vugar Bayramov said about the draft having to do with making informal employment arrangements formal and defining a number of employment contract criteria. Besides, it is stipulated in the Bill in what cases it is disallowed to conclude civil law agreements in the context of job relationships.

The MPs Razi Nurullayev, Vugar Iskenderov, Sattar Mehbaliyev, Sevinj Huseynova, Rashad Mahmudov, Tahir Mirkishili and Fazil Mustafa put forth their relevant opinions as well as remarks and suggestions.

The Bill was voted on favourably and approved in the first reading.

The overview of the draft amendments to the Administrative Offences Code, in the first reading, was provided by a member of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Kamal Jafarov. According to Mr Jafarov, those are meant to bring about a more active use of means of electronic control in the prevention of unofficial employment arrangements.

The House voted for the Bill and it was approved in the first reading.

The discussion that followed was of the first-reading draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Electrical Energy Industry’, ‘On Gas Supplies’, ‘On Water Supplies and Wastewater’, ‘On Regulation of Business Enterprise Checks and Protection of Enterprisers’ Interests’ and ‘On the Suspension of Business Enterprise Checks’.

Sadig Gurbanov, Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology, said about the proposed qualification of inspections of water, gas and electricity meters and getting down their readings as checking procedures. The application of the mechanism to correct meter tampering cases will be made easier for automatic responses from the state register, besides, Mr Gurbanov added.

Whilst commenting on this Bill, the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Razi Nurullayev and Elman Nasirov shared their thoughts about the state of affairs in the water, gas and electricity distribution to subscribers. They also made certain remarks and motioned suggestions in this regard.

After that, the Bill was put on vote and approved in the first reading.

As regards the package of the first-reading amendments to the Law ‘On the Suspension of Business Enterprise Checks’ a member of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Mashhur Mammadov who talked about it said that the amendments would extend by another year – till 1 January 2022, that is, the moratorium on business enterprise checks (save for the cases provided for in Article 2.1 of the Law) and would prohibit checking post factum, that is, after the moratorium ends, business operations conducted during it.

MP Iltizam Yusifov offered his opinion about the draft; then, this Bill was approved in the second reading.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Committee for Family, Women’s and Children’s Affairs Hijran Huseynova tabled for the second reading the draft amendments to the Family Code of the Azerbaijan Republic. Mrs Huseynova told the House that the provisions of the Family Code concerned with adoption of children had been adjusted in line with the presidential decree (signed in 2018) ‘On the Measures to Improve the Adoption Governance’. An electronic management system had also been created to render the relevant services. Meanwhile, the new amendments are going to make a weighty contribution to the relevant legislation, with their main goals being protection of children’s rights and interest and ensuring their upbringing in sound family environments. Besides, the amendments would facilitate the procedures pertaining for adoption of children by their current relatives.

MP Malahat Ibrahimghizi made remarks about the Bill before it was approved in the second reading.

Last but not list, a member of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Nurlan Hasanov presented the second-reading amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure of the Azerbaijan Republic, remarking that they were unifying in nature and would serve the cause of streamlining the legislation.

This Bill, too, was put on vote and approved in the second reading.

With that, the scheduled plenary sitting of the spring session of the Milli Majlis was over.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis