Constitution

Article 3 of the Greek Constitution, regarding relations between church and state, will not be subject to revision by the next Parliament, following a vote by lawmakers earlier Thursday.

MPs were on Thursday voting on which articles of the Constitution will be revised by the House that will be sworn in after this year's elections.

Greek lawmakers will debate the proposals on the revision of Greece's Constitution on February 12 and 13, House President Nikos Voutsis said on Tuesday, after receiving the report by the constitutional revision committee, the body responsible for examining the legislation.

This will give enough time to MPs and party rapporteurs to discuss the plan, he said.

The name deal signed between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in June stipulates that Athens will launch the process to ratify the agreement only after Skopje has completed its part of the process. Skopje must first notify Athens that its lawmakers have endorsed the deal (Article 1.4.b).

In order to improve the organization of judicial authorities and the positions of public prosecutors, the government proposed amendments to the provision of Article 4 of the Constitution, Articles 142-165, and consequently, the provisions of Article 99 of the Constitution (competence of the National Assembly), Article 105 (decision-making of the National Assembly) and the provisions of Article

The Turkish Parliament went on a break late May 16 after authorizing the cabinet to issue decree laws for the completion of harmonizing some key laws within the amended constitution before the June 24 elections.

The Constitutional Court announced on 20th of March that it decided unanimously to initiate a case for considering whether the Istanbul Convention is in line with the Basic Law of the Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

This is true along with "seeking a balance between the independence and the responsibility of the judiciary," Brnabic said on Monday, "adding that the ineffective judiciary is hampering reforms," the government announced.

This was previously requested by some professional associations.

Kuburovic added that after March 8, the text will be corrected in accordance with the objections it received and European standards, and then sent to the Venice Commission, which will provide an opinion.

GERB has filed a petition to the Constitutional Court in order to seek a ruling on whether the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention) is consistent with the Constitution or not.

The petition was signed by 75 MPs.

The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, will be involved in drafting recommended constitutional changes that it hopes will pave the way for judicial reform in Serbia in 2018.