Discussions of draft of the constitutional amendments have formally moved into the Parliament on September 20.

The parliamentary committee for legal affairs is expected to start discussion of the draft this week and the parliamentary session will likely to debate on the matter with the first hearing next week; no exact date however has yet been set for the parliamentary debates.

Mikheil Machavariani, vice-speaker of the Parliament from the ruling party, said the date would be set depending on discussions within the parliamentary committees.

He was speaking during the meeting of a parliamentary bureau, a body defining the legislative body’s agenda, on September 20.

MP Levan Vepkhvadze of Christian-Democratic Movement, a leading party in the parliamentary minority, said it was possible to discuss and pass the draft with the first reading, but the second reading should only take place after Council of Europe’s advisory body for legal affairs, Venice Commission, delivers its final opinion on the proposed new constitutional model.