Tamar Chugoshvili Meets Secretary of Venice Commission, Thomas Markert in Strasburg

The process of discussing constitutional amendments has been completely open from the first day and the governing team is ready to cooperate with political parties today as well, - said the First Vice-Speaker Thamar Chugoshvili in Strasburg after the meeting with the Secretary of the Venice Commission, Thomas Markert.
According to her, the Commission is quite positive with regard to the constitutional changes.
“We have had a very open process from the first day. We did our best to involve everybody. NGOs showed much more responsibility in this process. Involvement from their part was of much higher quality; therefore, 80% of their recommendations have been incorporated in the discussed document. Unfortunately, political actors have been more destructive. Yet, we would like to have them fully involved in the process and, of course, we are open to continuing discussion and cooperation between political parties. If there is a will from the opposition, we are ready,” – the First Vice-Speaker said.
Georgian parliamentarians provided detailed information to the Secretary of the Venice Commission on the discussions of the constitutional changes with two readings. The parties also spoke about the importance of a consensus between political groups in the process.
“As for the consensus, it was mentioned that the document was adopted without participation of the political opposition. However, the Venice Commission acknowledges responsibility of all parties for failure to reach a consensus. It was very clearly stated that all parties have their share of responsibility in reaching a political agreement on similar processes,” the First Vice-Speaker mentioned.
According to Tamar Chugoshvili, one more meeting will take place between the Speaker, Irakli Kobakhidze and the President of the Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio and later, in October, the final opinion of the Venice Commission will become known.
The Parliamentary Delegation headed by the First Vice-Speaker Ms. Tamar Chugoshvili is in Strasburg attending the Summer Session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on June 26-30.
In line with Tamar Chugoshvili, the Parliamentary Delegation includes Sofio Katsarava, Irine Pruidze, Eka Beselia, Zviad Kvachantiradze, Nino Goguadze, Dimitri Tskitishvili, David Bakradze and Giorgi Kandelaki.