BELGRADE – The opinions and legal advice of the Venice Commission and similar institutions can be misused by the authorities who act in bad faith, which is why dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders is necessary. And even if the reforms are genuine, they usually take time – constitutions can be changed quickly, but not the constitutional culture.
These were some of the conclusions of the panel discussion titled “The Judiciary as the Guardian of Fundamental Values: Keeping the Rule of Law at the Center of the EU Accession Policy” organized today at the Belgrade Security Conference 2024.
During the panel discussion, former opposition MP in the Serbian parliament Natan Albahari asked what should the Venice Commission and other international institutions do to avoid being taken advantage of by governments that do not want to implement serious reforms.
He said that the change of the Serbian Constitution several years ago had flaws, but that the government argued it had received a green light from the Venice Commission.
Angelika Nussberger, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a member of the Venice Commission, agreed that there is a risk that opinions of the Venice Commission can be misused by the actors who are not acting in good faith.
She pointed out that the Commission highlights both the progress and the shortcomings in its opinions, and sometimes the governments ignore the parts that they do not like.
“Venice Commission adopts soft law instruments, and there is a risk that this will be misused. What we do is listen to the civil society, and sometimes we leave out the ‘nice part of the sentence’ when we want to send a strong message. As a rule, we try to see it as a part of the dialogue and hope that we are not misused”, Nussberger said.
Earlier during the panel, Claire Bazy Malaurie, current President of the Venice Commission, said that this institution talks to everybody while drafting its opinions, not only authorities but also public associations, civil society and sometimes the media.
“We see how the systems can use the framework of democracy and rule of law to work against them. We prefer things to move slowly rather than backsliding. The strength of the Venice Commission is that it does not give short, yes or no answers, it provides an analysis of the situation”, Bazy Malaurie said.
She also commented on the tendency of governments to move too fast with legal reforms, especially in the context of EU integration, which is, according to her, never a good way.
“Everything about the judiciary takes time because we need to adopt new traditions and the way of work. That is a lesson about the follow-ups to the Commission’s opinions. They are very difficult because they take time”, Bazy Malaurie.
Christoph Grabenwarter, President of the Austrian Constitutional Court, also made this point, saying that you can write a constitution in a day, but you cannot grow the constitutional culture quickly.
“We sometimes expect younger states to grow very fast, but we forget that in other parts of Europe, it also took a long time. I am not saying that we should wait for 30 years, but we should learn from each other, assist each other and have an understanding of each other”, Grabenwarter said.