Lawyer Miloš Vukčević, one of the drafters of the request for the Venice Commission (VC), said that the text has not yet been agreed upon and will not be sent to that international institution today, as expected.
He said that there were disagreements with Justice Minister Bojan Božović, as the other party in the process, over the number of questions in the request.
While appearing on RTCG, he said that they had some difficulties in composing the text.
"We have had intensive work in the last three days, I believed that one question should be asked - whether the actions of the Constitutional Committee and the conclusion of that committee on the termination of the function of judge Dragana Đuranović are formally unconstitutional. On the other hand, the minister thought that more questions should be asked. We will continue to discuss this today and I expect that today, possibly tomorrow, we will come up with one specific question, which would be accompanied by an explanation from both sides," said Vukčević, as reported by the RTCG portal.
DON'T MISS IT
He added, however, that at this point he could not say whether the request would include only one question, but he emphasized that he was against having several questions, because that would undermine the meaning of this request.
He points out that the VK makes recommendations, and the government and opposition have committed to respecting them, so he expects them to be clear and precise so that they can be implemented.
"In my opinion and that of the opposition, the Constitution was violated in this case in the procedural part, and that is the most important part, because the Constitutional Committee has rudely taken over the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court. I defend the constitutional and legal order. The Constitutional Court, by majority, believes that the termination of judges' work is regulated by the Labor Law. The Judicial Council held otherwise, but in this case that is not important, that is the position of the Constitutional Court that we must respect," said Vukčević.
He emphasizes that we can disagree with some court rulings, but we cannot take over the jurisdiction of those courts.
"We are only opening proceedings before the Venice Commission, and it will collect opinions from all stakeholders, both the government and the opposition, and make a final decision, or recommendation," said Vukčević.
He expects the Constitutional Court to determine that there was a formal unconstitutionality in this case, and then it is up to the political public to respect that recommendation, as they have committed to. This, he says, would make it clear that this was the only case where a judge's employment was terminated under the PIO Law, and that it was a political decision.
Bonus video:
