At its 95^th plenary session of 14-15 June 2013, the Venice Commission of the Council of EUrope adopted the opinions on: 

-          the draft law on the Courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, following its consideration by the Sub-Commission on the Judiciary on 13 June 2013;

-          the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the Directorate for Justice and Human Dignity of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI) on the draft law of Georgia on a Temporary State Commission on Miscarriages of Justice,;

-          the Fourth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, following its consideration by the Sub-Commission on Democratic Institutions on 13 June 2013;

-          the balance of powers in the Constitution and the legislation of the Principality of Monaco, following its consideration by the Sub-Commission on Democratic Institutions on 13 June 2013;

-          the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the Electoral Code of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, following its adoption by the Council for Democratic Elections on 13 June 2013;  

-          the Constitutional amendments on the Judiciary of Ukraine, on the law on referendum of Ukraine, and on draft amendments to the Electoral legislation of Ukraine (the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR);

-          the interim opinion on the draft law on civic work organisations of Egypt,

-          the electoral legislation of Mexico;

-          the law on the High Committee for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Tunisia (the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR) and on

-          the issue of prohibition of so-called Propaganda of Homosexuality.

The Commission also held an exchange of views with:

-          Mr Srđan Radulj, Deputy Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina,

-          Mr Alexandre Baramidzé, Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia,
-          Mr János Martonyi, Minister  for Foreign Affairs of Hungary,
-          Mr José Badia, Government Councillor for External Relations of Monaco, with Mr Laurent Anselmi, Director General of the Legal Affairs Department of the Government, with Mr Philippe Narmino, Director of Judicial Services and with Mr Laurent Nouvion, President of the National Council of Monaco,
-          Mr Ranko Krivokapic, Speaker of the Parliament of Montenegro, about progress in the reform of the constitutional provisions on the judiciary and, in view of the urgency, authorised the rapporteurs to send the draft opinion on the new draft constitutional amendments to the Montenegrin authorities, prior to its submission to the October 2013 Plenary Session;
-          Mr Andriy Portnov, Adviser to the President of Ukraine and with Mr Valeriy Pysarenko, Chairman of the Committee on Judicial Policy, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and with Ms Inna Yemelyanova, First Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine;
-          Mr Khaled Al-Qazzaz, Secretary on Foreign Affairs to the President of Egypt,
-          Mr Leonardo Valdés Zurita, President of the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico,
-          representatives of the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe;

and was informed on follow-up to

-         the Opinion on the compatibility with human rights standards of the legislation on non-governmental organisations of the Republic of Azerbaijan;

-         the Opinion on the practice of blanket resignation of Ministers in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-         the joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the election code of Bulgaria;

-          the Opinion on the Draft Amendments to the Organic Law on Courts of General Jurisdiction of Georgia;

-          the Opinion on the Draft New Constitution of Iceland and

-         the Joint Amicus Curiae Brief by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR for the Constitutional Court of Moldova on the compatibility with European Standards of Law No. 192 of 12 July 2012 on the prohibition of the use of symbols of the totalitarian communist regime and of the promotion of totalitarian ideologies of the Republic of Moldova.

The Commission was also informed on:

-          co-operation with Romania on constitutional reform and, in view of the urgency, authorised the rapporteurs to send the draft opinion on the draft amendments to the Constitution to the Romanian authorities, prior to its submission to the October 2013 Plenary Session; 

-          the request for an opinion on the draft Constitution of Tunisia made by the President of the National Constituent Assembly, and, in view of the urgency, authorised the rapporteurs to send their comments to the National Constituent Assembly in July 2013, prior to the opinion’s submission to the October 2013 Plenary Session;

-          progress in the preparation of the opinion on the draft Law on Protection from Defamation of Azerbaijan;

-          recent constitutional developments in Turkey;

-          co-operation with Latin America;

-          co-operation with Morocco;

-          progress in the preparation of an International Conference on Political Party Regulation in the Southern Neighbourhood, which will take place in Bucharest on 18-19 October 2013;

-          progress in the organisation of a Conference on “the European legal standards and the scope of the discretion of powers in the member states of the Council of Europe”, which will take place in Yerevan on 3-4 July 2013, in the framework of the Armenian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers;

-          preparation of the 3^rd Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice in view of the meeting of the Bureau of the World Conference on 15 June 2013;

-          progress of the preparation of the study on Children’s rights in Constitutions;

-          the results and conclusions of the meeting of the Council for Democratic Elections;

In conclusion, the Commission confirmed the dates of its forthcoming 2013 sessions as follows:

-          11-12 October 2013;

-          6-7 December 2013

and fixed the dates for the 2014 sessions as follows:

-          21-22 March 2014;

-          20-21 June 2014;

-          17-18 October 2014;

-          12-13 December 2014.