Coordination among the commissions and the scheduling of the work of the Grand and General Council (Consiglio Grande e Generale) were at the heart of an address by committee member Lorenzo Bugli (PDCS) during the joint commission session of October 12, dedicated to the implementation of the association agreement with the European Union. His remarks in full follow below.
“I too join my colleague in thanking the two Secretaries of State for their reports, and I share the concerns raised about Article 5. However, there is one issue that, in my view, we need to work on in order to reach a solution: the method by which we approach the association agreement. The distribution of the various bills among the different commissions needs to be properly coordinated. I recall – and the Secretary will correct me if I’m wrong – that a parliamentary association committee is also envisaged, which will need to liaise with the European Parliament and deal with certain steps relating to European rules that may come into force and that we will need to transpose. If we’re talking about method, there’s an important aspect here: we have many commissions that often deal with different issues without any coordination between them. I’m thinking of the Commission for Institutional Reforms, chaired by my colleague Renzi, and our own Commission, which has always dealt with the association agreement with the European Union. Earlier there was also mention of the joint commission, of which we are members by right. The idea of creating it originated within the Foreign Affairs Commission and was later brought before the Grand and General Council through a motion, also involving trade and professional associations. In my opinion, some reordering is needed, because certain matters addressed by the Commission for Institutional Reforms must also be dealt with jointly with the Foreign Affairs Commission. We need coordination on the rules we are going to transpose, some of which will change many aspects of the Republic of San Marino – in my view, in an extremely positive way, bringing greater transparency and significant modernization of our legislation. The main point is that this agreement requires us to change our approach to political activity. A first step was taken with the Council’s regulations, but in my opinion that’s not enough: we need coordination of the overall work. As the Secretary rightly said, the volume of work itself may not be daunting, partly because some steps involve automatic transposition. What worries me instead is how these measures will be handled politically if we fail to establish a proper work schedule for the Grand and General Council. That is the real challenge. It’s as if Europe were telling us: well done, you’ve joined, now you need to show political maturity and coordinate yourselves accordingly. The concern raised by my colleague Zeppa should therefore also find room in our work, because putting these steps in order becomes essential. The agreement itself calls on us to address these aspects. The joint commission must not be lost – that much is true. I recall that the motion, on which His Excellency Giovagnoli also worked, was specifically meant to pass on information to the trade and professional associations. My colleague from the opposition put it well: when information is lacking, disinformation takes root, and that remains one of the worst problems we have in our country. In such a small country, this shouldn’t exist at all – or at the very least, it should be confined to those whose work is strictly political. Instead, there is still a great deal of confusion. Time and again we find ourselves having to explain steps that, to us, seem obvious. The joint commission was meant to convey this kind of information and to understand what the main requests from the trade associations were, so that politics could then carry them forward through the various institutions. Today, in my view, everything is fine as it stands, but the first priority is political coordination. Certain commissions need to be aligned on specific matters and should be convened jointly, as was done excellently today, or else a broader role for the joint commission needs to be envisaged on certain issues. Coordination is essential, because this agreement calls on us to change the very method of our political activity”
