Jaroslav Bašta: The House will honor him with a minute of silence. The MPs also plan to make changes to rape

Deputies will start another regular meeting of the Chamber this afternoon, which should continue into the following week. On today’s agenda could be drafts in the second reading, in which members of the lower house can submit amendments. This concerns, for example, a change in the definition of the crime of rape, a further postponement of the mandatory introduction of an attested electronic file service, and an adjustment to the management of medical documentation in electronic form.

At the beginning of the meeting, the plenum will honor the memory of SPD MP Jaroslav Bašta with a minute’s silencewho died on Monday night at the age of 75. Bašta faced a serious illness, he excused himself from the meetings of the lower chamber since about the middle of May last year.

As with the opening of previous regular meetings, a longer discussion on the format of the meeting program is expected, during which mainly opposition MPs present their topics. Designing and justifying program modifications usually takes several hours.

The coalition and the opposition agreed on changing the definition of the crime of rape from forced to non-consensual sexual intercourse. The government amendment, which was supported by the constitutional-legal committee without changes, also regulates the view of sexual practices with children under 12 years of age. Courts should always treat them as rape or sexual assault, not the lesser criminal offense of sexual abuse.

The mandatory use of the certified electronic file service is likely to be postponed for another year, according to the parliamentary amendment for 2027. This should give the authorities more time for preparation. The draft completely exempts the smallest municipalities and their organizations and schools from the obligation, so that their costs do not increase disproportionately. The administrative committee recommended that the amendment also adjust the handling of non-public documents of, for example, NATO and the European Union.

The government wants to enshrine the rules for the electronic management of health documentation in the law due to the fact that its current form presupposes primarily its paper form. According to the rationale, it does not create the conditions for technically feasible and operationally effective management of this documentation in digital form.