06/04/2017 - 07/04/2017
Bucharest - the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Mr Th. Jagland in his 2016 report on the “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law: a security imperative for Europe”, recommended that Council of Europe guidelines concerning the role and the responsibility of the political majority and its interaction with the opposition be developed.
In this context, the Venice Commission was invited to update its study of 2010 on the role of the opposition in a democratic parliament (CDL-AD(2010)025). The angle of the new study will be the interaction between the majority and the opposition in a democratic society.
The conference, which was co-organised by the Venice Commission and the Presidency of Romania, was placed under the patronage of the President of Romania and of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and brought together representatives of Parliaments (both from the majority and the opposition) from different Council of Europe member states, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, experts and civil society representatives, members of the Venice Commission including its President G. Buquicchio. The event, a stage in the preparation of its new report by the Venice Commission, provided an opportunity for a brainstorming on the challenges posed by the interaction majority-opposition and, in the light of the lessons learnt from national experiences in this field, on the modalities likely to make this interaction more constructive and more effective.