“On January 26, 2009, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe as well as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe appealed the Venice Commission with respect to giving an opinion to the amendments and annexes made to the Constitution of Azerbaijan.

Both appeals are not only about the referendum as a whole, but also about the draft law envisaging amendments and annexes made to the Constitution”, Administrator on Constitutional Issues of the Democratic Institutions and Fundamental Rights Department of the Venice Commission Alan Schable told APA exclusively. He sad the Venice Commission had already reviewed the amendments and annexes in this draft law. “However, the Venice Commission’s opinion does not reflect the issues on organization of the referendum, peculiarities of its organization and date. These issues are not the subject of appeal made to us. Of course, we follow the development of the process and we are aware of the concerns of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. But as I said, the opinion will be prepared on the basis of appeals we received”.

Alan Schable noted that the opinion on amendments and annexes proposed to the Constitution of Azerbaijan would be passed in the plenary meeting of the Venice Commission to be held on March 13 and it would be made public on the same day. Preliminary version of opinion on amendments and annexes to the Constitution has been presented to Azerbaijani Government. But it’s not a formal one. It’s internal affair of Azerbaijan how to organize the referendum. The Venice Commission does not intend to take a stance on this issue. The opinion reflects how the proposed amendments and annexes might create problems from the standpoint of European practice. The European practice became the basis during the analysis of these issues.
Strasbourg-APA.