Venice Commission

Chairman of the expert Committee on the justice package Florin Iordache said on Thursday that if necessary, the Venice Commission's opinion will be sought on the amendments to the judiciary laws.

The committee met with EC First Vice-President Frans Timmermans on Thursday.

KRAGUJEVAC - Serbia's Assistant Justice Minister Cedomir Backovic said Monday constitutional amendments relating to the judiciary should be coordinated with the Venice Commission by the end of the year.

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. 

Limiting the number of polling stations in countries outside the EU and the prohibition of using languages other than Bulgarian during the election campaign are said to be part of the problems that international observers from OSCE and PACE reported on election day, quoted by BNR.

BELGRADE - Eight observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights have registered to monitor the April 2 presidential elections in Serbia, the national election commission (RIK) told Tanjug on Wednesday.

Yet another clash has erupted between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and Europe, this time regarding the Venice Commission's highly critical report on the constitutional amendments to be voted on in the April 16 referendum. 

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has accused the Venice Commission of being a "mouthpiece of Turkey's opposition," criticizing the timing and wording of its new report on the government-supported constitutional amendment to shift Turkey to an executive presidential system. 

A report prepared by the Venice Commission that is set to be released next week examining Turkey's constitutional amendments will not be acceptable, a senior Turkish government official has said, criticizing the Council of Europe's advisory board of drafting it with political agenda. 

If there are no last-minute changes, the Council of Europe's Venice Commission is expected to release its report on Turkey's constitutional amendment package on March 13.

"The meaning of the preparation of this report and its presentation to the Council of Europe is to affect the referendum process in Turkey, to encourage people to say 'no' in the referendum," Bozdağ said.