The National Assembly enters its last week of work in 2022: starting next December 19, it will take a legislative recess that will last until January 2, 2023.
On the agenda for this last week, the processing of three bills will be prioritized, as anticipated by the authorities of the Legislative Administration Council (CAL), who will ratify the beginning of the legislative vacancy period.
At the same time, the Supervisory Commission closes the process of appearances and the process of practice of prosecution and defense evidence within the impeachment trial against the former Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, accused of alleged breach of duties in the process of purchasing medicines through public hospitals and health houses of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security.
Projects
The plenary session of the National Assembly will not close its work until the process is completed in two debates on the executive’s urgent economic project for digital and audiovisual transformation, which is related to the development of digital infrastructure in both the public and private sectors, audiovisual production and digital transformation processes.
The legislature, over the weekend, discussed this issue in the first debate and the document returned to the Economic Development Commission, which will have up to 72 hours to prepare a report for the second and final debate.
The report is ready for the first debate on the urgent project for digital and audiovisual transformation
This regulation reforms seven legal bodies in force, thereby creating mechanisms to improve connectivity in areas of difficult access, proposing tax exemptions for companies dedicated to the development of renewable and sustainable energy sources, aimed at energy transformation. Tax incentives for companies engaged in audiovisual production are also contained in the document.
Another of the projects that the Assembly must process before going into legislative recess is the partial veto of the organic law project for the development, regulation and control of financial and technological services (Fintech). The non-binding report is ready in the office of the Presidency of the Parliament.
Fintech Bill was approved in the National Assembly with 74 votes
In this document, the legislative table recommends ratifying the texts approved in four articles: 8, 12, 14 and 16; meanwhile, it suggests that they settle on nine objected articles and on the first general provision.
This project aims to provide legal certainty to financial technology organizations that operate in Ecuador and foreign companies that seek to invest in national territory. With this regulation, users will be provided with secure access and data protection.
Security
The president of the National Assembly, Virgilio Saquicela, announced that until Sunday, December 18, the bill that reforms various legal bodies for the strengthening of institutional capacities and comprehensive security was approved in two debates, as a response from the Parliament to the wave of insecurity in the country.
To do this, the Commission for Sovereignty and Integral Security met over the weekend to advance the approval of the report for the second debate.
The legislator who presides over the Sovereignty table, Ramiro Narváez, highlighted that the project amends six laws, which establishes a total restructuring of the social rehabilitation system in the country, and grants a more hierarchical category to the National Comprehensive Care Service to Adult Persons Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI), so that it has its own rectory, budget and does not depend on other institutions.
Another point that stands out in this reform, Narváez added, is the institutionalization of criminal policy, which is all the strategies, plans, actions and mechanisms that meet two objectives, such as combating crime and preventing crime, but for that You must understand the origin of the crime, and the ultimate goal in fighting crime.
There are several reforms to the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP), aimed at eliminating overcrowding in the country’s prisons and some penalties are also tougher.
constitutional reforms
Before taking advantage of the legislative vacancy, the Legislative Administration Council (CAL) aspires to know and decide on the constitutional reform proposal raised by the Executive regarding the possibility of participation of the Armed Forces in joint actions with the National Police to the fight against organized crime.
Legislator Esteban Torres (PSC), a member of the Legislative Administration Council (CAL), commented that this week they hope to qualify the Executive’s proposal and send it to the occasional committee for amendments, although there is talk of the possibility of it being the plenary the one that ratifies if the project will be known by the current occasional commission for the processing of projects of amendments and constitutional reforms. This, because the Constitution indicates that once a proposal for constitutional reform has been presented, an occasional commission will have to be established for its processing, so it is not ruled out that it is the plenary session that pronounces itself.
This week, the legislative activity is scheduled for the sessions of the committees and the plenary session of the Assembly to be virtual on Monday and Tuesday, and from Wednesday the activity will be face-to-face at the level of the legislative tables and the plenary session and will last until Sunday December 18. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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