At its 99th plenary session (13-14 June 2014 in Venice), the Commission: 

-          Paid tribute to the late Jean-Claude Colliard, member of the Venice Commission in respect of France;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Idlir Peçi, Deputy Minister of Justice of Albania and adopted the opinion on the draft amendments to the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes of Albania;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Vrezh Gasparyan, Chief Adviser to the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, and adopted the opinion on the draft law on Making Amendments and Supplements to the Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Kamran Bayramov, Director of the Unit for the Work of the Municipalities, Department of Work with Regional and Local Self-Government Authorities of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan and adopted the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the Directorate General of Democracy (DGII) of the Council of Europe on draft amendments to the law on the Status of Municipalities of the Republic of Azerbaijan;

-          Held an exchange of views with Ms Tinatin Khidasheli, Member of the State Constitutional Reform Commission of Georgia, on the progress of work on Constitutional Reform in Georgia;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Danyar Narymbaev, Head of the Presidential Administration of the Kyrgyz Republic and with Mr Omurbek Tekebaev, Member of Parliament, and adopted the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the draft electoral code of the Kyrgyz Republic, previously adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections on 12 June 2014;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Toktogul Tumanov, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Judiciary of the Kyrgyz Republic, and adopted the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the Draft Constitutional Law “On introducing amendments to the Constitutional Law ‘On the Status of Judges of the Kyrgyz Republic’”;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Mukambet Kasymaliev, President of the Constitutional Chamber of the Kyrgyz Republic and adopted the opinion on the draft law on the Constitutional Chamber of the Kyrgyz Republic;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Dimitry Vyatkin, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and adopted the opinion on Federal Law no. 121-FZ on Non-commercial Organisations (“Law on Foreign Agents”) and on Federal Law no. 190-FZ on making amendments to the Criminal Code (“Law on Treason”) of the Russian Federation, previously examined by the Sub-commission on Fundamental Rights on 12 June 2014, giving mandate to the rapporteurs to supplement it, notably in the light of very recent amendments to Law no. 121-FZ;

-          Held an exchange of views with Mr Tomáš Borec, Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic, and adopted the opinion on the procedure for appointing judges to the Constitutional Court in times of presidential transition in the Slovak Republic, previously examined by the Sub-commission on Democratic Institutions on 12 June 2014;

-          Adopted the opinion on the Draft Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Tajikistan;

-          Was informed on the perspectives of co-operation in relation to the constitutional reform in Ukraine and authorised the rapporteurs to send, if so requested, a draft opinion to the Ukrainian authorities in the course of summer, prior to the next Plenary Session;

-          Adopted the revised joint Guidelines on the legal personality of Religious or Belief Communities by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR;

-          Endorsed the comparative study on national legislation on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, drawn up by the Max Planck Institute;

-          Was informed on the process of constitutional reform in Armenia;

-          Was informed on follow-up to:

• the amicus curiae brief for the Constitutional Court of Georgia on individual application by public broadcasters;

• to the Joint Opinion on the draft Electoral Code of Bulgaria and

• to the Joint Opinion on the Law on Amending some legislative acts on the election of the President of Ukraine adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 24 July 2009;

-         Was informed on :

• constitutional developments in Norway, Tunisia and Turkey;

• co-operation with Morocco;

• prospects of co-operation with Libya;

• the results of the meeting of the Scientific Council on 12 June 2014 and agreed to the criteria for the composition of the Scientific Council as follows: President and Vice-Presidents of the Commission; Chairs of the Sub-Commissions; members or substitute members who direct Research Centres on Constitutional, International or Human Rights Law;

• the results and conclusions of the meeting of the Council for Democratic Elections, held on 12 June 2014;

• recent activities and prospects of development of the Sub-commission on Latin America;

-          Held an exchange of views with

• representatives of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and was informed of the decision taken by that Committee on 11 June 2014 to invite Kosovo to become a member of the Venice Commission;

• representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe;

-          Elected Ms Jasna Omejec (Croatia) as member of the Bureau; Mr Oliver Kask (Estonia) as Vice-Chair of the Council for Democratic Elections and Mr Michael Frendo (Malta) as Vice-Chair of the Sub-Commission on Democratic Institutions;

-          Confirmed that the 100th Plenary Session will take place in Rome on 10-11 October 2014 at the invitation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

-          Was informed that the Fourth Intercultural Workshop on Democracy on “Transparency of the public administration, the rule of law and equitable and sustainable development” will take place in Rome on 9 October 2014;

-          Confirmed the dates of the next Plenary Sessions as follows: 12-13 December 2014, and fixed the dates for the 2015 sessions as follows:

• 20-21 March 2014;

• 19-20 June 2015;

• 23-24 October 2015;

• 18-19 December 2015.