Impact and Follow-up
The Venice Commission’s pivotal role in upholding and strengthening democracy and the rule of law was underlined in the 2023 Reyjkavik Declaration of the Heads of State and Government who undertook to raise the profile and strengthen the Venice Commission, by, for example, giving more visibility and status to its Rule of Law Checklist and exploring ways the Council of Europe can better support the implementation of its recommendations.
In order to focus on the core issues and on its previous recommendations, the Commission created in 2022 a new type of Opinions – the follow-up opinions – which examine revised draft constitutions and laws or subsequent, additional sets of amendments in a global manner, in the light of the Commission’s recommendations on previous versions of such draft texts or of previous reforms. These Follow-up Opinions render more visible the impact which the Commission’s recommendations actually produce.
The implementation of the Commission’s recommendations contained in its Opinions remains a process of continued genuine dialogue between the Venice Commission in its advisory capacity and national authorities in their capacity of decision-makers. In order to further increase the impact of its recommendations, the Venice Commission, in parallel to Follow-up Opinions, carries out follow-up activities, occasionally in co-operation with other Council of Europe or EU institutions, in order to help its member States advance in core areas of constitutional or statutory reforms.
European Commission for
Democracy through Law
