Venice Commission President: Parliamentary system of government could
strengthen Armenian democracy

11:47 07/03/2015 » INTERVIEWS

Panorama.am presents an exclusive interview with the President of the
European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) of
the Council of Europe Gianni Buquicchio.

– Mr. Buquicchio, what are some recent main achievements of Venice
Commission, main areas of the work with member states, challenges
ahead?

– Generally one can say the Venice Commission has become an
indispensible partner of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe
who wish to carry out legal and constitutional reforms. When we give
an opinion on a draft legal text, this opinion is taken seriously and
mostly implemented to a considerable extent. If not everything is done
immediately, our recommendations shape the agenda for the future. To
give you an example from ArmeniaÖ The Venice Commission had
considerable influence on the on the 2005 constitutional reform. Those
recommendations of the Commission which were not, or not fully,
implemented in 2005 are now points of departure from the new reform
currently envisaged.

More recently, the Venice commission has become an important actor of
the neighborhood policy of the Council of Europe. We were closely
involved in the drafting of the new constitution of Tunisia and were
able to ensure that it is in line with international standards of
democracy, the rule of law and human rights. To co-operate
successfully with the countries of the Southern Mediterranean such as
Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan will remain of our main challenges in the
next year.

Currently our main priority is Ukraine in making the necessary reforms
with respect to the constitution, the judiciary and electoral
legislation.

Generally speaking the functioning of the judiciary in most countries
of Central and Eastern Europe remains unsatisfactory and we are
involved in judicial reforms in many countries.

– What is the main role of Venice Commission in crafting European law?

– The main role of Venice Commission is not to develop rules of
European law but to assist member states in improving their
legislation based on European standards and experience. Our advice is
based on what we call the European constitutional heritage and we help
to integrate states into the European legal and constitutional space.
The experience of the states we advise then becomes an element of the
European constitutional heritage and in this manner we contribute to
its further development.

We also work closely with constitutional courts, with the
Constitutional court of Armenia being one of main partners, and in
this manner we contribute to these courts taking an approach based on
European standards and experience.

The Venice Commission does not have democratic legitimacy and we
cannot adopt European legal standards. However, in some cases, texts
prepared by the Venice Commission were endorsed by the Committee of
Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly and have become European
standards. The best known case is the Code of good Practice in
Electoral Matters, which has become the main reference text containing
electoral standards in Europe.

– What are some highlights of cooperation with Armenia in the content
of current constitutional reforms?

– First of all I would like to pay tribute to the very professional
character of the work of constitutional reform commission. The
commission took very coherent approach which is well through and based
on the experience of other European countries. It also carried out
public consultations. We had several meetings with the commission and
these meetings resulted in improvements and refinements of the text.

In our opinion the concept paper provides an opportunity for reform
which should not be missed.

The most important element of the concept is the move towards a more
parliamentary system of government. This is a choice for each country
but in our opinion it is a welcome choice which could strengthen
Armenian democracy. The other main element of the concept is to
enshrine the principles of the rule of law more consistently in the
Constitution and strengthen constitutional guarantees for the
implementation of fundamental rights.

– What are some of the main trends of constitutional reforms in Europe?

– Developments are not uniform throughout Europe since national
conditions vary widely. One common trend is that constitutions are
becoming more open towards the integration of international and
European law into the domestic law and towards co-operation with
international and European institutions, accepting limits on national
sovereignty.

In many countries of Eastern Europe there is a tendency towards a more
parliamentary system of government, one of the main topics of the
constitutional reform debated in your country. This trend is not
exclusively found in Eastern Europe. The new Finnish constitution is
also an example where the powers of the President were reduced. There
is also a trend toward strengthening constitutional justice and paying
more attention to guarantees for judicial independence in many
constitutions.

– Thank you so much.
By Anna Lazarian