Venice Commission

STRASBOURG - The European Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution on the situation in Serbia following the December elections in the country.

The resolution was carried with 461 votes in favour and 53 against and 43 abstentions.

The Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's constitutional law experts, and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, have warned that the new draft law in Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity on the "Special Registry and Publicity of the Work of Non-Profit Organisation", dubbed the "foreign agents law", "contains serious deficiencies".

Experts from the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe composed of independent experts on constitutional law, warned that new legislation strengthening the powers of Moldova's Information and Security Service's could have a negative effect on democracy in the country.

An election official holds up a ballot paper during the counting process for the Istanbul mayoral elections re-run in June 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/AKIN CELIKTAS

The Venice Commission said that even under the new law, the election threshold remains "among the highest in Europe", despite being reduced from 10 per cent to 7 per cent.

Serbia has followed "most" Venice Commission recommendations about its constitutional amendments - but the risk of politization of main judicial bodies still need to be reduced, the constitutional law advisory body of the Council of Europe said in its urgent opinion issued Wednesday.

Acting Justice Minister Lucian Bode said on Thursday that the dismantling of the Section for the Investigation of Judicial Crimes (SIIJ) remains a priority of his term, and the solution should be "a solid bill" that takes into account the recommendations of the Venice Commission. "Another priority of my term as interim is the abolition of the SIIJ.

An 18-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), led by Alfred Heer (Switzerland, ALDE), will observe the conduct of the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, the organization wrote on its website, https://pace.coe.int/, on Monday.

Minister of Justice Stelian Ion met on Monday with the Dutch Ambassador to Romania, Roelof Van Ees, with the two officials discussing on this occasion the process of amending the Justice package, but also the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

The first-reading approval of the figure of a prosecutor entitled to investigate the Prosecutor General in Bulgaria has come as a surprise for the European Commission for Democracy through Law (aka Venice Commission).

The Venice Commission announced this at today's monitoring group meeting in the European Parliament, Radio Horizont learnt from its sources.

Venice Commission as integral part of Council of Europe published report on the proposed draft for new constitution by the ruling party GERB.