Politicians react to the Venice Commission Opinion

On April 16, the Venice Commission (VC) published their urgent opinion on the selection and appointment of Supreme Court judges. The recommendations were met with mixed reactions from the Georgian political spectre.

While the members of the ruling party, as well as the chairperson of the parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze said that the published opinion was mostly positive, the opposition had different views about the 14-page document that the Venice Commission published.

The second hearing of the draft law was scheduled on April 17. Members of the opposition, as well as some MPs from the ruling party, asked the Chairperson to postpone the hearing until the VC recommendations are reflected in the bill.

After the Majority meeting on April 17, Irakli Kobakhidze announced that The Parliament would resume consideration of the bill on Selection and Appointment of the Supreme Court Judges on April 18 after reflection of the Venice Commission recommendations.

Eka Beselia, along with Zviad Kvachantiradze and Gedevan Popkhadze, previous members of the ruling party, held a special briefing regarding the VC document.

According to Beselia, the opinion was more critical than expected; therefore the draft law should be changed.

“Everyone who says that the opinion is positive is either lying or lies to themselves. This is a strict and critical evaluation. What is not criticized is only the title of the bill, everything else- is” – said Beselia about the VC opinion.

“I think that all of us together should properly meet the published recommendations to share it fully and we will fight for every article to be taken into account in detail. If the ruling doesn’t take all the recommendations into account, we will demand categorically that it shall not be adopted. Without considering the recommendations, adopting the law would be going into a deadlock” – said Zviad Kvachantiradze.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of The Legal Issues Committee and a representative of the ruling party, Anri Okhanashvili, assessed the recommendations as positive: “All the important aspects are evaluated as positive. Concerning the recommendations, we have resources to discuss each recommendation, analyze them and take them into account accordingly. …The opposition will have to face the fact that the Venice Commission Opinion is positive”.

One of the more critical articles of the Opinion concerns the low trust that the High Council of Justice (HCoJ) has from the large segment of society. Based on this, the VC is concerned that the public wouldn’t trust the Supreme Court that will be selected by the HCoJ.

Another important recommendation of VC is that the current Parliament should only appoint half of the Judges in the vacant spots and that the further appointments may then be made by Parliament elected at the next general elections.

Yesterday, Irakli Kobakhidze met with the diplomatic corps, NGOs and different Governmental branches to discuss VC recommendations.

After the meeting, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Carl Hartzell made comments about the political nature of the abovementioned recommendation.

“The Venice Commission understands that this is a political recommendation; however, this is not included in the list of major recommendations. The main recommendations apply to judicial and technical issues. This issue should be considered” said the Ambassador.

Representatives of the Georgian NGOs also made comments on the VC Opinion and highlighted the fact that most of the recommendations are in line with their own comments.

As mentioned above, the bill on Selection and Appointment of the Supreme Court Judges will be discussed today, on April 18, after reflection of the Venice Commission recommendations. It remains to be seen whether the ruling party will follow up on their promise to take the VC recommendations into account.