The Venice Commission has adopted its final opinion over Georgia’s constitutional changes today. Although the opinion itself will not be officially published until next week, Commission President Gianni Buquicchio voiced some of his thoughts regarding Georgia’s most important document in an interview with the Georgian Public Broadcaster. “This text and this constitution will improve the lives of the people of Georgia,” he said, adding that however, regrettably the lack of political consensus while adopting the constitutional changes was still a problem.
“My position is that these constitutional amendments is a step forward and it will help Georgia develop further. But again, it would be much, much better if a consensus could have been achieved between different political forces,” Buquicchio said. He stressed that a constitution is a document that belongs to everyone and not only one political party, meaning that even if amendments are positive, they need to be consensus-based for any country.
The draft of the amended constitution was praised by London University professor of law Jeffrey Jowell QC. “I think it is a very impressive project to try and bring the constitution to one of the great, modern constitutions in the world today, of course, based on the culture of Georgia. I’m very impressed by what has been done so far,” he said.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze presented the draft constitution at the discussion at the Venice Commission. Following the discussion, he told Georgian media that the Commission’s final opinion was “absolutely positive” and recognised the progress Georgia had registered while implementing its constitutional reform. Georgian Parliament adopted the draft constitutional changes at their third and final hearing on September 26. The document has now been sent to President Giorgi Margvelashvili to either approve or veto the document. He must make his decision by October 10.
