12 October 2010, 22:40
Thomas Markert: not all Venice Commission's recommendations taken into account in amended Constitution of Georgia
The Georgian Parliament has disregarded many of the recommendations of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission). This was stated by Thomas Markert, head of this independent advisory body to the Council of Europe on the constitutional law.
As reported by Mr Markert in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the general concept of the reform is based on the offer made earlier by the Venice Commission and aimed at reducing the presidential powers and creating a more balanced system of state government.
With regard to relations between the government and the parliament, the main recommendations of the Venice Commission were aimed at forming the government and vote of non-confidence to it. "The bill assumes a too complicated procedure for the parliament for changing the government no longer trusted by the parliament," said Thomas Markert.
He also pointed out that the bill had provided the political group with the highest score of votes at elections with too much discretion in forming the government. "Our guidelines on these issues were not taken into account in the first reading, but the third reading is still pending," he said.
According to his story, as compared with the current Constitution, the bill with amendments assumes no changes with regard to the limited role of Parliament in the procedure of approving the budget.
