In a bid to end the controversy over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, opposition lawmakers yesterday agreed to urge the Executive Yuan to announce the immediate resumption of construction in accordance with the resolution passed by the legislature last week.
Opposition lawmakers said that negotiations between the Legislative and Executive Yuans could be started once the executive branch accepted the request to resume the project.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The agreement, reached after a two-hour closed door meeting attended by leaders of the opposition parties, also states that the Executive Yuan should first draft a new state energy law to be reviewed by the legislature, the two branches of government should work together to make Taiwan a nuclear-free nation, and the additional budget for the project should be dealt with according to due process of law.
Opposition lawmakers subsequently told reporters that the concise statement had gone through six revisions before its final version was finally hammered out. They said the most crucial aspect was to ensure the legality of the legislature's resolution of Jan. 31 that, in accordance with the constitutional system and the ruling of the Council of Grand Justices on Jan. 15, the cabinet would be bound by resolutions passed by the legislature.
The opposition's insistence on this point alone provoked severe reactions from the DPP lawmakers, who said that any decision by the cabinet to restart the construction of the power plant could only be perceived as an outcome of negotiations between the two sides.
"The wording [in the statement] which says that the Executive Yuan should comply with legislative resolutions, on the authority of the Constitution and ruling of the Council of Grand Justices, needs to be further clarified because legislative resolutions are not legally binding," said Chou Po-lun (
Otherwise, the Executive Yuan would have to consent to every resolution passed by the legislature, he added.
In the face of the pressure by the opposition to restart the project, the DPP legislative caucus called a provisional meeting yesterday afternoon to prevent the cabinet from making any reckless decisions. They called on the executive branch to engage in further negotiations before giving in to the opposition's requests, and stressed that the power of the executive cannot be usurped.
"We [DPP legislators] have agreed with the cabinet, that it will negotiate further with the opposition to find a solution that would be satisfactory to both sides," said Chou.
"We [the DPP] need to stick to our bottom line -- legislative resolutions are not legally binding to the Executive Yuan. And more importantly, [the Cabinet] cannot decide to resume construction during the negotiation process," DPP lawmaker Chou Ya-shu (周雅淑) said.
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