Venice Commission :: Council of Europe

The Commission
- paid tribute to its late member Mr François Luchaire;
- held an exchange of views with Mr Rusmali, Head of the Legal Affairs Committee of the parliament of Albania, and adopted the opinion on the Law “on the cleanliness of the figure of high functionaries of the public administration and elected persons” of Albania (the law on lustration), subject to certain amendments;

- adopted the second interim opinion on the draft Law on amending the Civil Code of Armenia, and gave mandate to the rapporteurs to assess the latest version of the amendments with a view to submitting a final opinion at the next Plenary Session;

- was informed on follow-up to the Joint Opinion on the Election Code of Armenia;

- was informed that the EU and the US would propose shortly to the party leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina a new package of constitutional amendments based on the Venice Commission’s opinion on the constitutional situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the powers of the High Representative and on the opinion from 2006 on the draft Amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

- held an exchange of views with Ms Chiora Taktakishvili, Deputy Chairperson of the Legal Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, and adopted the interim opinion on draft amendments to the Law on occupied territories of Georgia, with certain amendments;

- held an exchange of views with Mr Akaki Minashvili, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, and took note of the rapporteurs’ comments on the amendments and supplements to the Law on “Assemblage and Manifestations of Georgia”, pending the preparation of the opinion to be submitted to the Commission at the next Plenary Session;

- was informed by Mr Igor Rogov, President of the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan, on recent constitutional developments in Kazakhstan and a request for an amicus curiae opinion on the constitutionality of a customs union by the Constitutional Council;

- adopted the joint opinion with OSCE-ODIHR on the draft Law on political parties in Kyrgyzstan, subject to certain amendments;

- held an exchange of views with Mr Gunars Kutris, President of the Constitutional Court of Latvia, and adopted the opinion on the draft amendments to the Law on the Constitutional Court of Latvia, subject to certain amendments;

- was informed on the progress of work in relation to the revision of the Constitution of Luxembourg;

- adopted the opinion on the draft Law on the prohibition of discrimination of Montenegro;

- adopted the joint opinion with the Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe (DG-HL) on the amendments to the Law on the protector of human rights and freedoms of Montenegro, subject to certain amendments;

- was informed on follow-up to the Opinion on the Draft Law on the Constitutional Court of Montenegro;

- was informed on constitutional developments in Norway;

- adopted the joint opinion with OSCE-ODIHR on the draft Law on the State Election Commission of Serbia, the draft Law on the Unified Register of Voters of Serbia and the draft Law on the Election of Councillors of Serbia;

- was informed on the request from the Slovak authorities to examine the law on the State language of the Slovak Republic;

- held an exchange of views with Mr Portnov and Mr Pysarenko, Members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and adopted the joint opinion with OSCE-ODIHR on the Law amending certain legislative acts on elections of the President of Ukraine;

- postponed consideration of the draft Law on the Judicial System and the Status of Judges of Ukraine to the next Plenary Session;

- examined the draft report on the independence of the judicial system – Part I Judges, and decided to pursue its work on this matter;

- decided to pursue its work on the report on the notions of good governance and good administration, on the guidelines on an internationally recognised status of election observers and on the report on the cancellation of Election results;

- held an exchange of views with the representatives of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe;

- accepted the request from the Committee of the Regions of the European Union to take part in the sessions of the Commission and the Council for Democratic Elections;

- was presented with the Liber Amicorum Antonio La Pergola, published by its former member Mr Hans-Heinrich Vogel of the University of Lund;

- fixed the dates of the next sessions as follows:
11-12 December 2009; 12-13 March 2010; 4-5 June 2010; 15-16 October 2010; 17-18 December 2010.