The forum focused on ex-ante and ex-post legislative impact assessment.
The Max Planck Foundation held its third consultative forum with the Parliamentary Legislative Department of the Iraqi Parliament under the GFFO-funded project titled ‘Democratising the Legislative Process in Iraq’ in Baghdad, Iraq, on 8-9 April 2025. Foundation staff were joined by prominent regional and international experts and practitioners who addressed various aspects of legislative impact assessment.
The forum began with an exchange between the PLD and the regional and international practitioners from Tunisia and Spain that focused primarily on parliamentary legislative impact assessment practices and the challenges faced within each of the Iraqi, Tunisian and Spanish systems respectively. There followed a presentation by a leading expert in the field on comparative practices in relation to post-legislative scrutiny and the different roles that parliaments can play in this respect.
Based on a case study that centred on Iraq’s challenging electricity landscape and the need for alternative energy sources, the PLD members were invited to identify the required legislative policy and engage in a step-by-step, in-depth ex-ante legislative impact assessment. The participants were further required to consider the role that the PLD plays in exercising post-legislative scrutiny and the extent to which it can contribute to enhancing parliamentary accountability. The participants were encouraged to provide specific answers in relation to the different phases of post-legislative scrutiny and to formulate concrete proposals accordingly. The proposals will be raised to the Iraqi Parliament for consideration.
Project activities are set to continue until late 2025.