The Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia approved the agenda for the plenary sessions scheduled for 9-12 June.

Speaker of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili also briefed Bureau members on newly introduced legislative initiatives and identified the lead and mandatory committees responsible for reviewing them.

By decision of the Bureau, several legislative packages will be considered under an expedited procedure. Among them is the draft Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Georgia, which will be introduced by the Speaker of Parliament.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, the proposed amendments are aimed at further refining the Rules of Procedure: “The new Rules of Procedure have already improved many parliamentary procedures and made the work of Parliament more effective. Based on the experience gained so far, we are proposing additional refinements to a number of provisions”.

The Bureau members also discussed organizational matters, including a request from the Agriculture Committee concerning the establishment of a working group and approval of its composition for the preparation of a UNESCO nomination of the traditional method of beer brewing in the mountainous regions of Georgia.

The Speaker emphasized the importance of establishing the working group and thanked the Chair of the Agriculture Committee for the initiative: “Within the framework of a working group, the Agriculture Committee successfully worked on the nomination of Georgia’s wheat and traditional bread-baking culture for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Today, not only is this tradition recognized as cultural heritage, but research has also confirmed that Georgia is the homeland of bread as well as wine. Inspired by this successful process, we have decided to prepare the traditional beer-brewing culture for a UNESCO nomination as well. Based on previous experience, Parliament provides an effective platform for cooperation between the executive authorities and academic circles. It is also important that Parliament to contribute to the promotion of this topic. We hope that during the term of the 11th Convocation Parliament, we will be able to secure recognition of another Georgian cultural tradition as an element of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage”.