Legal expert suggests MPs should self-evaluate ethical qualifications amid controversy over agricultural law changes
Each member of parliament (MP) must evaluate their own qualifications from an ethical and political perspective, says a legal expert on the involvement of the committee chair in changes to agricultural laws. The changes made the merger of KS and Kjarnafæði Norðlenska possible.
Hafsteinn Dan Kristjánsson, a lecturer at HR, says that if there is doubt whether a bill has been amended more than the constitution allows, it would be better to propose a new bill.
In the constitution, there are no specific rules on the competence of MPs. It’s entirely based on their own conviction. “But in the parliamentary law, there is one provision that states they may not participate in voting on financial allocations to themselves. And that is not applicable in this case,” says Hafsteinn.
The chairman of the committee that proposed the major changes to the bill is Þórarinn Ingi Pétursson, an MP of the Progressive Party. He is a farmer and owns 0.3% of Kjarnafæði Norðlenska.
The code of conduct for MPs contains two provisions: one about not exploiting public position for personal interests and another about avoiding conflicts between public interests and personal or financial interests. “This is something that could possibly be evaluated,” says Hafsteinn. “But appropriate parties would have to make a decision on this.”
The new agricultural laws that were adopted by the Parliament in March make the merger of Kaupfélag Skagfirðinga and Kjarnafæði Norðlenska possible. But what was the course of the case?
In November last year, then Minister of Food, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, proposed a bill on changes to agricultural laws. There, meat processing plants owned or controlled by farmers were to be allowed to cooperate. The first debate about the bill in parliament was on 21 November. After it ended, the bill was referred to the committee. There, significant changes were made.
All meat processing plants, not only those controlled by farmers, were to be allowed to cooperate. Mergers of meat processing plants were also permitted, thereby making them exempt from competition laws. This was not in the original bill.
The changes were so significant that some said that the majority of the committee had actually written a new bill.
In the second debate on 19 and 20 March, these changes by the committee were disputed. Opposition MPs wanted the bill to be referred back to the minister. This proposal was rejected and the bill was adopted after the third debate on 21 March, with the votes of MPs of the government parties.