Venice Commission experts to meet Romania's president

Experts from the Venice Commission will arrive in Romania on Monday (September 10 ) to meet with Romanian president Traian Basescu. The aim of the visit is for the experts to come up with an opinion on Romania's constitutional situation and the emergency ordinances to change the Constitutional Court and the Referendum Law in Romania, according to the Presidential Administration.

The Venice Commission has not been a stranger to Romania lately. The country's Constitutional Court asked the Commission's experts twice to support it in the face of political pressure ahead of the Court’s ruling on the validity of the referendum. Venice Commission president Gianni Buquicchio (in picture) said he had “received additional information from the Court about continuing pressure and threats against individual judges.” The Venice Commission president asked all Romanian politicians to stop attempting to influence the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Regarding the claims of threats made against individual judges Gianni Buquicchio said he expects that “the Romanian authorities will protect the judges concerned and their families and take all necessary steps to bring the authors of such threats to justice.” In July, Romania’s Constitutional Court also asked the Venice Commission for help after the government issued emergency ordinances and overturned its decisions. The Venice Commission, or the European Commission for Democracy through Law, is the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters. Founded in 1990, the commission has played a lead role in the adoption of constitutions in Europe. The Commission meets four times a year at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, in Venice. Originally the Commission included 18 Council of Europe states, since then it has expanded and now has 58 members, in Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and beyond. Romania has two representatives at the Venice Commission: Lucian Mihai, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, and former president of the Constitutional Court, and Bogdan Lucian Aurescu, Secretary of State for Strategic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. editor@romania-insider.com