05/06/2010 President
Strasbourg, 05.06.2010 - On the occasion of the ceremony to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the European Commission for Democracy through Law in Venice, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu underlined “the importance of the co-operation between the Commission and the Assembly”. The different nature of the respective bodies – PACE being strictly political, and the Venice Commission on the other hand being eminently legal – does not prevent them from “working together and reinforcing the impact of their respective actions”, he said, as “the mission of the two bodies often coincides”. In this respect, the President mentioned “the most visible and recurrent instance of co-operation”, that of electoral observation missions.
Mr Çavusogl u also stressed that in some cases, “the Venice Commission acted on proposals made by the Assembly”, quoting a recent example, the Code of good practice in the field of political parties, adopted by the Commission on the basis of an idea originally proposed by the Assembly.
Finally, the PACE President welcomed the fact that the Commission was open to exchanges with countries whose constitutional framework and political situation may differ – ranging from the Council of Europe’s neighbours in the Maghreb to far-away South America. “This goes exactly in line with the policies of the Parliamentary Assembly and my own priorities, to involve more closely non-member states in our activities,” he said, mentioning the “Partnership for democracy” status* recently established by PACE.
*This status allows parliamentary delegations from the countries of the Mediterranean’s southern shore, the Middle East and central Asia to take part in the Assembly's activities.