Home > 5.1.3 Referendum requested by part of the electorate > ALBANIA - Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on the Legislative Initiative of the Citizens
 
 
 
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Paragraph 25
 

The draft law provides many duties for the initiative groups, such as the duty to sign a memorandum and the selection of a representation/representative committee (Article 3.6 and Article 6.1). Article 6.4 further provides that any civil society organisation initiating the draft law should be registered as provided by the Albanian legislation. This could in practice limit the right to draft such initiatives to registered NGOs only. Furthermore, although Article 5 allows for individual citizens to initiate the draft, paragraphs 1 and 8 of Article 6 require from the representation/representative committee to submit the memorandum of cooperation to the CEC, while Article 3.6 defines a memorandum of cooperation as an agreement among civil society organisations and between such organisations and citizens. This may be interpreted as a mandatory requirement for the citizens to sign a memorandum with a registered organisation or register themselves as NGOs. The Venice Commission and the ODIHR recommend allowing citizens to carry out proceedings required by the law on civil initiative without being required to align with a registered organisation or register as organisations themselves.