The Lower House of Parliament is set to hold a legislative session on Monday to discuss a number of draft laws referred from its specialized committees and the government, as well as others returned from the Senate. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Labor and Social Development Committee continues to review feedback on the amended Social Security Law.
The House will begin deliberations on the amended Competition Law for 2025, which was returned by the Senate after introducing changes to two of its articles. The Senate rejected the Lower House’s decision to remove the phrase “any practices” from Article (3), related to anti-competitive practices, as well as the removal of “or any other form” from Article (6), which defines economic concentration.
The amendments to the Competition Law aim to restructure the Competition Directorate into a Competition Protection Department, establish a Competition Affairs Council, enhance its independence, impose stricter penalties on violators, and introduce mechanisms for reporting anti-competitive practices.
The House will also discuss its Finance Committee’s recommendation regarding a draft law to ratify a loan agreement between the Jordanian and Italian governments for 2024. The agreement provides for a soft, unconditional loan of €50 million from Italy to support a project within the general budget, specifically aimed at financing the digital transformation program in the healthcare sector.
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Zeina Toukan, previously stated that under the agreement, Jordan is committed to allocating the necessary financial resources to implement the program in line with national priorities. She added that 60% of the agreement is in the form of a grant, while the remaining portion is a loan with a low interest rate of 0.5% and a repayment period of up to 20 years.
Government-Referred Draft Laws
The government has submitted three amended draft laws to the Lower House to proceed through the constitutional process via relevant committees. These include:
• The amended Civil Status Law for 2026
• The amended Traffic Law for 2026
• The amended Real Estate Ownership Law for 2026
The amendments to the Civil Status Law aim to grant explicit legal recognition to digital identity as an official means of identification, alongside the national ID card. It will carry the same legal validity in verification processes and require both public and private entities to adopt it in accordance with applicable regulations. This step is intended to enable citizens to complete transactions electronically in a secure, reliable, and legally recognized manner while ensuring the protection and confidentiality of personal data.
The amended Traffic Law seeks to allow citizens to complete all vehicle sale and purchase transactions—including payment—through electronic means. It also enables remote transactions and the use of electronic signatures. For this purpose, electronic signatures will be adopted by notaries in vehicle transactions, allowing deals to be completed without in-person attendance through audiovisual communication and digital authentication.
The amended Real Estate Ownership Law addresses issues related to the removal of joint ownership (common property) by simplifying and accelerating procedures. This is expected to help resolve many long-standing disputes involving thousands of properties and bring unused real estate into economic circulation. The draft law also introduces provisions for electronic sales, digital signatures, and the full digitization of procedures—including payment, subdivision, and sales—in line with notary regulations, while reducing financial and procedural burdens associated with paper-based publishing.
Parliamentary Committees
The Parliamentary Labor and Social Development Committee continues to gather feedback on the amended Social Security Law for 2026. During Monday’s meeting, it will hear from several former labor ministers, former heads of the parliamentary labor committee, former directors of the Social Security Corporation, as well as representatives from the Jordan Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Banks in Jordan.
The Parliamentary Health and Food Committee will meet with representatives from the Oromia Tourism Commission of Ethiopia to discuss medical tourism.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Education Committee will review expert opinions on the draft Law on Education and Human Resource Development for 2026, while the Public Services and Transport Committee will discuss challenges facing yellow taxi drivers.
