Venice Commission Reprimanded the Government

Aleksi Bezhanishvili

Venice Commission called upon the government of Georgia to carry out prompt constitutional changes. Chairperson of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio thinks that balance between governmental branches in Georgia shall be promptly restored; the power of the president of Georgia shall be restricted while the parliament shall have its power increased. Simultaneously, the country shall have normal judiciary authority.

Buquicchio made the statement at the briefing in the Tbilisi office of the Council of Europe on February 4 and added that after “Rose Revolution the balance between governmental branches has reduced.”

“I admit that you needed strict control in the state but now it is high time to make the policy smoother and share power among different branches. The balance shall be preserved between executive, legislative and judiciary authorities. The power of the president shall be restricted while the parliament will have its power increased. You need really independent judiciary authority. For all these, certain amendments shall be introduced to the constitution,” said Buquicchio.

Gianni Buquicchio could not avoid the topic of elections as well. He was critical about the government in this direction too. “In order to hold fair elections, political will is also necessary together with the law,”  he said and added that executive government shall be more accountable towards the parliament; local self-government shall have more power, court shall be more independent, as for the constitutional changes, they shall be acceptable for all political powers and not only for one single party.

According to the chairperson of the Venice Commission, there are many faults in the Constitution of Georgia which shall be eradicated through consensus.  Buquicchio stated at his meeting with the experts of constitutional commission and non-governmental organizations that current constitution does not comply with the requirements of western standards.

“Georgia started working on the constitution since the first days of its independence and unfortunately, the country has failed to worked out complete constriction for 20 years,” said the chairperson of the Venice Commission.

According to Buquicchio, more faults are discovered in the part of state infrastructure. He thinks, particular attention shall be paid to the separation of the government in the new constitution and more autonomy shall be granted to local authorities.

“There are many goals and faults and everybody shall work on them together. The constitution shall be worked out based on the agreement and consensus and civil society and political parties shall also participate in it,” said Buquicchio.

Before the meeting with the chairperson of the Constitutional Commission of Georgia Avtandil Demetrashvili and commission members Gianni Buquicchio pointed out: “Through the close contract with the constitutional commission we aim to work out time-table of the meetings. The law about self-government is very important; first of all, it shall support the development of democracy in the local governmental institutions. I am interested in the details of the law which the commission members will introduce to me. The most important is to make the constitution more understandable and acceptable for people.”

On his side, chairperson of the Constitutional Commission of Georgia Avtandil Demetrashvili said: “We will discuss the conclusion of the Venice Commission about the regulation of the local self-government, which will go into the constitution as well. We will hold discussions about this issue. The second issue deals with the amendments about judiciary authority. We will discuss election of the judges for permanent term and the rule of their election.”

“Georgia lacks political culture. I mean responsibility. People will always have different opinion but it should finally reach constructive decision,” said Gianni Buquicchio during the meeting with the non-governmental organizations and experts of the Constitutional Commission. Besides that, according to the chairperson of the Venice Commission, similar tendency is not noticed in Georgia. “Lack of political culture is problem of regions; particularly in those countries which have gained independence recently.”

Chairperson of the Venice Commission made some notes about several laws at the briefing in the office of the Council of Europe. According to him, the government of Georgia has promised to take his remarks into consideration and make some changes into the Law on Manifestation.

“We should really discuss the Law of Manifestation. The fact that the right of assembly was restricted, does not oppose the Venice Commission. Some restrictions are acceptable. For example, restrictions about the location and involvement of police in the urgent necessity. However, we think, categorical restrictions are illegal. For example, prohibition of protest demonstrations within 20 meters of the public institution. We have shared our remarks with the government of Georgia and they promised to introduce amendments to the law,” said the chairperson of the Venice Commission.

Gianni Buquicchio visited Georgia together with other members of the commission. He met President Mikheil Saakashvili, speaker of the parliament Davit Bakradze and chairperson of the Constitution Commission of Georgia Avtandil Demetrashvili and commission members. He also visited the Central Election Commission and representation of the CoE in Georgia. Gianni Buquicchio stated that final conclusion of the commission shall be published in near future.

Venice Commission has been participating in the completion of the Constitution of Georgia since 1993. Constitution Commission worked out draft of new constitution but commission members cannot say when it would be ready. The new constitution of Georgia shall be submitted to the parliament of Georgia for adoption only after the Constitution Commission finishes working on it and Venice Commission discusses it.

Based on the Information of “Interpressnews”, “GHN” and News Agency “Pirveli”