Croatian Parliament considers rules to shorten debates

Members of the Croatian Parliament are considering amendments to the Rules of Procedure aimed at shortening and streamlining parliamentary debates. The proposed changes would reduce club debates from 15 to 10 minutes and individual debates from 10 to five minutes.

Under the new rules, representatives would be allowed to reply to other parliamentary clubs, but the ability for members of the same club to reply to one another would be abolished to prevent unnecessary delays. Additionally, the process for claiming a violation of the Rules of Procedure would change; instead of being an individual request, it would be handled by the parliamentary club. If a violation claim is found to be unjustified, the club would receive a warning, and repeated unjustified claims could result in the loss of the right to request such violations for the remainder of the day.

While many representatives support the move toward more efficient discussions, Marija Selak Raspudić of the Drito party characterized the amendments as ‘unimportant cosmetic changes’ that fail to address core issues. Marijana Puljak of the Centar party noted that the points were agreed upon by club representatives during a Presidency meeting and expressed expectation for a written draft from the Speaker of Parliament, Gordan Jandroković.