Georgia should have one Security Council
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, February 21
Vice-Speaker of Parliament and member of the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party, Gia Volski, believes the country should have only one Security Council.
Volski is also a member of the Constitutional Commission, consisting of 73 members, among them experts and representatives of seven political parties, government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
The Commission was set up in December 2016 in order to introduce the constitutional amendments before April 30, 2017.
The reform of the National Security Council is one of the key issues of the Constitutional Commission, as the majority of society believes that the National Security Council under the Presidential Administration and the State Security and Crisis Management Council under the government's administration have the same functions.
“We should not have two identical structures which have the ambition to compete with each other in governance affairs,” Volski said.
The National Security Council is an advisory body to the President of Georgia, and is empowered to consider issues determined by the Organic Law on National Security Council of Georgia to draft highest political decisions.
It was set up mainly to organize the military development and defense of the country. The President of Georgia is the head the National Security Council and approves its structure, its personnel, and regulations concerning the Office and its subdivisions.
The State Security and Crisis Management Council was established to discuss strategic issues of domestic and foreign policy. The council also makes political decisions over all kinds of crisis management issues, including national interests or the country’s security.
In certain cases two bodies overlap each other's activities and thus it is quite reasonable to leave only one entity.
