14/10/2025 President
PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos has hailed the work of the Venice Commission – the Council of Europe’s group of independent legal experts – at a ceremony in the city’s Ducal Palace to mark the Commission’s 35th anniversary, describing it as a “refuge in perilous times”.
Drawing a parallel between Venice’s history as a city built on water and the work of the body which bears its name, the President said: “Building stability upon fragility is what defines the work of the Venice Commission: transforming the instability of politics into the stability of law.”
The Commission, he said, was “often obliged to reconcile the irreconcilable, not as a severe judge, but as a fair companion to the Council of Europe – which, for 76 years, has been the beacon of unity and the guardian of human dignity on the continent”.
Replying to those who today question the European Convention on Human Rights, seeing rights as “obstacles rather than safeguards”, the President pointed out: “the rule of law is not a luxury of peace but the condition for peace itself”.
“What stands firm is not what is rigid, but what is resilient – what bends with the wind yet remains anchored to its foundations,” he concluded. “May the Venice Commission continue to be that anchor – our refugium in periculis, or refuge in perilous times, our moral compass in times of storm.”