The Venice Commission will not delegate members to the Advisory Group of Experts on the selection of the CCU judges until the law is amended
The Venice Commission has once again expressed its position regarding the law on the “reform” of the CCU in a letter to Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk:
“Two of the core recommendations contained in the opinion adopted by the Venice Commission in December 2022, … have not been followed in the Law adopted on 13 December 2022. Therefore, the preconditions for the nomination of candidate members of the AGE by the Venice Commission are not fulfilled.”
Two requirements that the Venice Commission specifies are:
- candidates who are recognised by the AGE as not meeting the requirements of integrity and professional competence cannot be appointed to the positions of judges of the Constitutional Court;
- while the composition of the AGE includes international experts, the composition of the AGE should include the 7th member, who should be appointed under the international quota.
We expect amendments to the law as soon as possible.
The full text can be found here.
On December 13, the Parliament adopted the law on changing the procedure for selecting judges of the Constitutional Court. It contradicted the opinion of the Venice Commission because it maintained the practice of political influence on the procedure. Therefore, the NGOs called on international partners and, first of all, the European Union not to support the fake reform and not to participate in its implementation until the law meets the recommendations of the Venice Commission.
