Majority expects Venice Commission’s report on constitution in two weeks
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, September 8
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party expects that the preliminary conclusion of the Venice Commission regarding Georgia’s constitutional amendments will be known on September 20-22.
The information was released by GD member and Vice Parliament Speaker, Tamar Chugoshvili.
She said the parliamentary majority will publicize the viewpoints of the commission. According to Chugoshvili, in the conclusion, the Venice Commission will assess how the state shared the recommendations issued by them in June.
“According to our agreement, the preliminary version of the Venice Commission report should be available before the final adoption of the constitutional draft…we have positive expectations,” she added.
Chugoshvili underlined that the previous assessment of the draft was very positive and all the notes have been considered by the government.
“The Venice Commission agrees with us regarding the main issues and we have taken into account their recommendations,” she said.
Gia Volsky, a GD MP, believes that the Venice Commission cannot have any notes or remarks.
“The main task and function of the Venice Commission is to give advice to different countries on certain legal issues. They can only give recommendations,” MP Volsky stressed.
However, the MP added that a consensus over the constitutional draft is necessary and everything should be done to reach it.
”If this consensus is not reached, this is the reality we have to face and therefore we should act in accordance with the interests of the country,” he noted.
Tamar Kordzaia, a member of The Republicans non-parliamentary opposition party, says that the majority “does not have the sense of responsibility” regarding the constitutional amendments.
“The Venice Commission is trying to improve the current situation in Georgia. They once again evaluated the amendments and stressed that it is important to achieve a compromise. Compromise implies that the government should take some steps itself,” she added.
Kordzaia hopes that the government will carefully study the upcoming recommendations and will make the final decision afterwards.
“It is also important that the majority take into account the main demand of the opposition about introducing fully proportional election system from 2020,” she stressed.
The GD, with its supermajority in Parliament, adopted the proposed changes to the country’s constitution with its second reading in late June. The third reading of the document is scheduled after the Venice Commission releases its assessment of the draft.
