You're reading: Venice Commission publishes opinion about proposed constitutional amendments in Ukraine

The European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) on Wednesday published on its website its early opinion of proposed amendments to the Ukrainian constitution regarding the territorial structure and local authorities.

The opinion is based on comments by Commission members Hanna Suchocka (Poland) and Kaarlo Tuori (Finland) and also expert Alain Delcamp of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

The document says that the conclusions are preliminary.

The commission said that Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Chair of the Constitutional Commission Volodymyr Groysman, requested the Commission to prepare an urgent opinion on the draft amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine relating to the territorial structure and local administration, proposed by the working group of the Constitutional Commission.

“In the light of the urgency, it deals only with the main issues and does not assess the amendments exhaustively,” the document reads.

The Venice Commission’s conclusions say that the draft amendments introduce a form of decentralization in the exercise of state power which is largely compatible with the European Charter of Local Self-government.

However, the Venice Commission believes that two changes should be made to the proposed draft amendments to the constitution.

“The power to dismiss the prefects should be given to the president upon recommendation of the Cabinet of Ministers; a provision to the effect that some categories of administrative/territorial units or special arrangements for or within administrative/territorial units may (only) be created by law should be added,” the conclusions read.