Venice Commission: 15 years of constitutional expertise from Romania to
Iraq
Strasbourg, 07.07.2005 – Addressing the Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the
European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the
Venice Commission, the Commission’s President Antonio La Pergola
declared:
“Our role, and along with it our work-load are steadily increasing. One
of the principal reasons for this development […] is that the Venice
Commission has always tried, […] to engage in matters of immediate
relevance to the countries concerned, and that it has thus made all the
contribution it could to implement within the member states the shared
and cherished values of which the Council of Europe is the guardian”,
adding that “in the new democracies basic questions of constitutional
law remain crucial for the democratic stabilisation of these countries”.
Most recently, the Commission reached an agreement with the Armenian
authorities on constitutional reform that should contribute to the
country’s democratisation and might pave the way for the return of the
opposition to parliament.
Mr La Pergola also informed the Committee of Ministers about ongoing
work notably in Kyrgyzstan and Iraq: “Upon the invitation of the German
Friedrich Naumann Stiftung we participated in a seminar on
constitution-making with members of the Constituent Assembly of Iraq in
Amman. A follow-up seminar on federalism will take place in Germany in
mid-July. We sincerely hope that these activities, which are entirely
funded by the German foundation, will contribute to the emergence of a
peaceful, stable and democratic Iraq”.
In 15 years of activity, the Venice Commission has played a key role in
promoting European constitutional heritage and bringing constitutional
texts in Central and Eastern European countries into line with the
fundamental norms of modern democracies. Romania was the first country
to request the cooperation of the Commission in 1990. Since then, nearly
all the new European democracies, together with other countries such as
South Africa, have benefited from its expertise. The Venice Commission
is also active in the fields of elections and constitutional justice.
A consultative body of the Council of Europe composed of independent
experts in the field of democracy and constitutional law, the Venice
Commission currently has 48 member states(*).
For more information, see
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(*) Argentina, Canada, Korea, the United States, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Mexico, the Holy See and Uruguay have observer status, Belarus has
associated member state status, and South Africa has a special
cooperation status. The European Commission and OSCE/ODIHR also work
with the Commission.
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