Requested by: Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Monitoring Committee

Recommended Measures:
The Venice Commission and DG I therefore recommend: - reconsidering the transparency of the process by which the House of Representatives designates Supreme Court judges, as well as the process by which the Minister of Justice nominates members of the Council for the Judiciary; - aligning the position of councillors of the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State to the position of other judges in disciplinary matters, and, as regards the possibility for the Vice-President to issue a written warning against a councillor, providing a remedy to an independent instance; - integrating in statutory law both the new procedure for appointing court administrators, and the mechanisms (to be developed and implemented) to ensure a broader representation of all levels and types of courts in the Council for the Judiciary; - defining in a more concrete and precise manner the concept of “unsuitability” and rephrasing the wording “serious suspicion” of unfitness required for the suspension or dismissal of a member of the Council for the Judiciary and of the court management boards by including reference to concrete elements of proof, as well as abolishing differences in treatment between judicial and non-judicial members in disciplinary matters; - removing the Minister’s power to give instructions not to prosecute in specific cases, or at least to limit this prerogative to clearly defined exceptional circumstances. In addition, if the system of confidential advisors which the Dutch authorities mentioned in their comments of 4 October 2023 deals with cases in which a prosecutor considers an instruction illegal or against his or her conscience, it is important that the rules that provide for adopting the relevant measures, such as allowing for the replacement of a prosecutor wishing to abstain from prosecuting a case, be formalised in statutory law; - introducing the obligation for judges that become members of the national or European Parliament to take special leave for the duration of the term.