The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice has signed another strategic partnership agreement with three civil society organisations, bringing the number of strategic partnerships to ninety-two.

Intended to assist the legislative process in Hungary through involvement of the civil sphere, such agreements have been made possible by the Act on participation in the legislative process by organisations within society, which was submitted to Parliament by the present government in its first year in office.

The new regulation in the Hungarian legislative process is an important vehicle for the representation of interests within society, and for improving the quality of law-making. On Thursday the Ministry signed agreements with the Association of Hungarian Translation Companies, the Paneuropean Lawyers’ Union and the Young Entrepreneurs Association Hungary. This means that such agreements have been completed with a total of ninety-two organisations. The aim of all agreements so far has been to involve civil society organisations comprising experts with outstanding professional experience and knowledge to prepare legislation affecting the civil sphere. The intended result is legislation of higher quality, which is realisable and well-suited to real-life conditions.

When the agreements were signed, Parliamentary State Secretary Bence Rétvári said that with this agreement the abovementioned organisations have also accepted an obligation to represent their sectors. Partnership with society, directly involving those affected, is necessary to create laws serving the public good. When preparing legislation in a given field, strategic partnerships can be formed with those organisations which are able to put forward the interests of a wide spectrum within society, or which carry out specialist activities in that field. Strategic partners are first and foremost civil society organisations, churches, professional and scientific organisations, interest groups, public bodies, national minority self-governments and institutions of higher education. Such partnerships may also be formed with organisations representing Hungarians beyond the borders.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)