You're reading: Presidential advisor: Venice Commission ready to provide legal aid to Ukraine

During a meeting in Kyiv on June 9, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, President of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) Gianni Buquicchio, and Secretary of the Venice Commission Thomas Markert discussed issues connected with constitutional reform in Ukraine, according to the presidential administration.

"It is foreseen that constitutional reform would be implemented after broad public and professional discussions with the community and politicians. Actually, these implementation prospects and the possibility of cooperation and the application of all of the mechanisms of European experience of the Venice Commission during constitutional reforms were on the agenda of today’s meeting between the president of Ukraine and the leadership of the Venice Commission," said the president’s adviser and head of the department on the constitutional and legal modernization of the presidential administration, Maryna Stavniychuk.

Stavniychuk also noted that special attention was paid to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2012.

"The issue of the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2012 is very important. And the Venice Commission has to check the quality of the legislation developed by the Justice Ministry of Ukraine [and] the working group that worked on improving the legislation on the elections of the people’s deputies of Ukraine… I think this autumn we will receive from the Venice Commission respective recommendations on the preparation of the election legislation," she said.

According to Stavniychuk, even when a special law on the election of people’s deputies is adopted for holding the elections in 2012, the issue of the development of an Election Code of Ukraine would still remain on the agenda.

"The president’s meeting with the leadership of the Venice Commission was rather constructive. The sides exchanged opinions on important issues regarding state building… The Venice Commission is ready to continue providing Ukraine with a lot of legal aid, provide expert assistance for [work on] legislative acts as part of the constitutional reform in Ukraine, so that Ukraine could develop as a democratic and law-abiding state," Stavniychuk said.