78th Plenary Session of the Commission (Venice)
13/03/2009 - 14/03/2009
The Commission has discussed the following issues :
• amendments to the Criminal Code of Armenia in relation to the March 2008 events;
• the constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan, which inter alia would enable the President to be re-elected more than once;
• the Georgian law on occupied territories (Abkhazia and South Ossetia);
• the constitutional and legal provisions relevant for the prohibition of political parties in Turkey.
Other opinions adopted by the Commission concerned:
• the admissibility of a constitutional referendum in and electoral code of Albania;
• constitutional amendments in Georgia,
• the Draft law on freedom to receive information in Armenia;
• the Law on the Constitutional Court of the Palestinian National Authority;
Furthermore, the Commission has adopted the report on internationally recognised status of election observers. The adoption of the report on European standards as regards the independence of the judicia systems is postponed till the next session due to the lack of time.
The EU Special Representative for the Southern Caucasus, Peter Semneby, Director of Multilateral Relations and Human Rights of the European Commission, Veronique Arnault, and the Director of the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Janez Lenarcic, have addressed the Commission.