Venice Commission      Council of Europe
Council of Europe - Conseil de l'Europe Council of Europe - Conseil de l'Europe Home
The Commission
Presentation
Constitutional assistance
Constitutional justice
Elections and referendums, political parties
Members
Events
Focus
Calendar
Newsletter
SGs Conference
UniDem Campus
World Conference
Documents
Opinions
Studies
Recent documents
Access by:
Publications
Search
Web Resources
CODICES database
VOTA database
Library
Links
Photo Gallery
Restricted access
Calendar of Events
Recent and current events | Programme | Archives

Recent and current events

Morocco - North-South Centre   22/02/2010 - 23/02/2010

Rabat - The Commission participates in the awareness raising seminar on activities of the North-South Centre and the Council of Europe.

Montenegro - Public roundtable on the draft law on protection from discrimination   19/02/2010

Podgorica - A member of the Venice Commisison takes part in a public round table organised by the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights on the draft law on protection from discrimination.

Round table on the ban of political parties and similar measures   17/02/2010 - 18/02/2010

Brussels - Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR organise a round table on the ban of political parties and on similar measures, as well as on the role of the political parties in the elections.

This activity brings together a significant number of international experts in order to formulate the proposals for the future OSCE guidelines on the functioning of political parties.

OSCE/ODIHR - Round table on electoral disputes   15/02/2010 - 16/02/2010

Warsaw – Representatives of the Venice Commission participate in the round table on the electoral disputes and contribute to the development of the new guidelines of the OSCE in the field.

Visit to Moldova - follow up to the request for opinion   09/02/2010 - 10/02/2010

Chisinau - Following the request for assistance to constitutional reform addressed by the Acting President of the Republic of Moldova, Mr Ghimpu, to the Venice Commission, the President of the Commission, Mr Gianni Buquicchio, will meet President Ghimpu and other political leaders during a visit to Chisinau on 9 to 10 February.

This visit will be followed by the visit of a Venice Commission delegation to Chisinau on 24 to 26 February to discuss the draft Constitution with the Constitutional Commission.

Ukraine – second tour of the presidential elections – Assistance to the elections observation mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe   05/02/2010 - 09/02/2010

Ukraine - Venice Commission ensures legal assistance to the PACE presidential elections observation mission.

Ukraine - Judiciary   05/02/2010

Kyiv - In cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Co-operation Directorate/DGHL of the Council of Europe, the Commission organises a round table on the draft Law on the Judicial System and the Status of Judges.

OSCE-ODIHR - Review of the guidelines for legislation pertaining to religion and belief   04/02/2010 - 05/02/2010

Warsaw - The Venice Commission is participating at the 2nd meeting of the working group on the review of the guidelines for review of legislation pertaining to religion and belief.

Constitutional Reform in Georgia - meeting between the Venice Commission and the authorities   03/02/2010 - 04/02/2010

Tbilisi - Within the framework of the constitutional reform, a delegation of the Venice Commission meets with the State Constitutional Commission, with the President, with the Speaker of parliament, with the Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission and with the civil society.

Bosnia and Herzegovina – Conference on the impact of the ECHR on the Constitution and on the electoral legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina   28/01/2010

Sarajevo - Representatives of the Venice Commission participate in the conference on the impact of the ECHR on the Constitution and on the electoral legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

PACE- Request for opinion - Respect for media freedom   27/01/2010

Strasbourg - In its Recommendation 1897 (2010) the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has requested the Venice Commission to analyse the compatibility of the warning adressed by the Justice Ministry of Belarus on 13 January 2010 to the Belarussian Association of Journalists with universal human rights standards.

Request for opinion - Constitutional reform in Moldova -   20/01/2010

The acting President of Moldova Mihai GHIMPU has asked the Venice Commission to assist the constitutional reform process in the Republic.

Draft opinion on the Act on State Language - Visit to the Slovak Republic   18/01/2010 - 19/01/2010

In connection with the preparation of the opinion on the Act on State Language, a delegation of the Venice Commission traveled to Bratislava and Samorin on 18-19 January to meet with representatives of the authorities, the national minorities and the civil society.

Ukraine - Legal Advice to the Parliamentary Assembly   14/01/2010 - 18/01/2010

Kyiv - At the invitation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mr Srdjan Darmanovic, member of the Venice Commission, and Mr Pierre Garrone, Head of the Division of Elections and Referendums, take part in the Observation Mission of the Parliamentary Assembly as legal advisors at the occasion of the first round of the presidential elections (17 January 2010). Their task is to advise the members of the PACE delegation on legal aspects of elections.

Union of Arab Constitutional Courts and Councils   10/01/2010 - 11/01/2010

Tripoli - In co-operation the Union of Arab Constitutional Courts and Councils and the Supreme Court of Libya, the Commission organises a Symposium of the Scientific Council of the Union on "the Economic and Political Rights from a Constitutional Point of View"

Serbia – request for opinion   16/12/2009

Serbian authorities asked the Venice Commission to give an opinion on the law on referendums.

World Conference on Constitutional Justice   12/12/2009

Venice - The 2nd Meeting of the Bureau of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice discussed the preparation of its 2nd Congress (Rio de Janeiro 16-18.1.2011)

OSCE/ODIHR- Guidelines for review of legislation pertaining to religion or belief   12/12/2009 - 13/12/2009

Milan - The Venice Commission participates in the first meeting of the OSCE/ODIHR working group on the revision of the Guidelines for review of legislation pertaining to religion or belief

81st Plenary Session of the Commission (Venice) 11/12/2009 - 12/12/2009

At its 81st plenary session, the Commission adopted the opinions on the following issues:

• Armenia – revised draft law amending the Civil code concerning the rules on compensation of victims of defamation by the press;
• Azerbaijan – draft Laws on the Status of municipalities and on obtaining information on activities of the courts of Azerbaijan;
• Bulgaria - draft Law on Normative Acts;
• Georgia – revised draft amendments to the law on occupied territories;
• Kazakhstan - interpretation of the Kazakh Constitution concerning the participation in the Customs Union within the Euro-Asian Economic Community;
• Luxembourg - the draft revision of the Constitution of Luxembourg;
• Moldova - draft law on the status of Euroregions;
• Ukraine - draft law on organising and conducting peaceful events.

The Commission exchanged views with the President of the State Constitutional Commission of Georgia Mr Avtandil Demetrashvili on the constitutional reform in this country.

The Commission adopted the report on constitutional provisions for amending the Constitution,

In the field of the electoral law the Commission will adopt the following documents:

- Guidelines on the internationally recognised status of election observers,
- Report on the cancellation of election results.

The Commission elected Gianni Buquicchio as its President, Jan Helgesen as 1st Vice President and President of the Scientific Council to be created. The other elected members of the enlarged Bureau are as follows:

Vice-presidents: Ms Finola Flanagan (Ireland)
Mr Peter Paczolay (Hungary)

Bureau: Ms Kalliopi Koufa (Greece)
Mr Valeriy Zorkin (Russia)
Mr Konghyun Lee (Korea)
Mr Aivars Endzins (Latvia)
Chairs of the Sub commissions:

Fundamental rights -- Mr Kaarlo Tuori (Finland)
Federalism and regionalism -- Mr Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem (Germany)
International law -- Mr Vojin Dimitrijevic (Serbia)
Minorities -- Mr Jan Velaers (Belgium)
Judiciary -- Ms Hanna Suchocka (Poland)
Democratic institutions -- Mr Jeffrey Jowell (UK)
External relations -- Mr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici (Malta)
Working methods -- Mr Pieter van Dijk (the Netherlands)
Constitutional justice -- Mr Christoph Grabenwarter (Austria)
Council for Democratic Elections -- Mr Jean-Claude Colliard (France)
Adopted documents

Top of the page Disclaimer