Following a request of the Committee on equal opportunities for women and men of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Commission adopted a report on the impact of electoral systems on women's representation in politics (CDL-AD(2009)029).

This report concludes that there are a wide variety of socio-economic, cultural and political factors that can hamper or facilitate women's access to parliament.

Among the institutional factors, both the electoral system and gender quotas can strongly influence women's parliamentary representation. Among other factors favourable to women's representation are: 

In its report CDL-AD(2009)038 the Venice Commission addressed the questions raised by the increased use of private military and security firms (PMSCs) in the light of the proposals made by the Parliamentary Assembly in its Recommendation 1858(2009), which calls for the elaboration of a new instrument on this matter.

The Venice Commission considers that some of the issues taken up by the PACE - while undoubtedly of international concern - are not appropriate for inclusion in a Council of Europe treaty. Other parts of the PACE recommendation could form the basis of future treaty provisions. However, a Council of Europe treaty on the subject of PMSCs would, at the present time, be very time-consuming and problematic to draft.
Nonetheless, certain of the issues taken up by the PACE are suitable subjects for a Committee of Ministers recommendation, such as the invitation to the CoE member states to review:

The imperative mandate and "recall" are procedures through which citizens have the right to revoke or replace an elected official before the end of his/her mandate. This concept of imperative mandate is widely rejected in democracies although some countries have used this institution to try to solve a particular problem (the "political nomadism" or "floor-crossing", the defection of a political party or change of affiliation).

The report CDL-AD(2009)027 concludes that at present, the imperative mandate and the "recall" is not practiced in European countries. The Commission has repeatedly argued that the disqualification of a representative capacity for changing of his/her political affiliation violates the principle of a free and independent mandate. Even if the purpose of such measures (i.e. to prevent an elected member to "sell" his/her mandate to the highest bidder) may be treated with some understanding, the fundamental constitutional principle that prohibits any practice aimed at depriving a representative of his/her mandate, should prevail as a cornerstone of the European democratic constitutionalism.

The document CDL-AD(2009)31 summarises more developed guidelines adopted previously by, inter alia, OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission (CDL-AD(2005)032). It aims at giving tools for analysing how media can influence the electoral process. It focuses on the following issues:

• voters' right to receive information;
• candidates' right to impart information;
• the media's freedom of expression.

 In particular, it examines issues such as news coverage, free airtime and paid advertising.