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In April 2008, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted amendments to the Election Code. Following an official request from the Moldova authorities forwarded to the Venice Commission on 28 August, and in line with their usual co-operation, the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission have undertaken a joint expert review of the Election Code of Moldova (hereinafter “the code”) as amended. The present opinion should be read in conjunction with the Joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR, adopted by the Venice Commission at its 73rd Plenary Session in December 2007. It focuses on the extent to which the amendments have addressed previous recommendations, and assesses the amendments against OSCE commitments and international standards for democratic elections.

Review Session, 15th Economic and Environmental Forum- part two, Prague, 21-23 May 2007

supporting documents / background brochures in general, Seminar on gender-sensitive labour migration policies, Brdo, Slovenia, 16-17 February 2009

Tolerance Implementation Meeting, Almaty, 12 and 13 June 2006

This joint opinion on the Draft Law No. 3366 About Election to the Parliament of Ukraine (“draft law”) is provided by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) and the Council of Europe’s European Commission for Democracy through Law (“Venice Commission”) upon a request from the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on State Building and Local Self-Governance. This joint opinion comments on the most recent version of the draft law (CDL(2009)084). Earlier opinions of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission, as well as numerous election reports from previous OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe observation missions in Ukraine, provide excellent background for understanding the historical development of the election legislation in Ukraine. This draft law continues to incorporate recommendations for improvement. The most significant change is the introduction of a new electoral system. The system proposed in the draft law provides for 450 parliamentarians to be elected under a form of proportional representation that uses territorial election districts, including a foreign territorial election district where ballots are cast by out of country voters. Under the proposed system, most members of parliament will be elected from national lists, with the mathematical possibility for individual political party candidates to be elected within an in-country territorial election district from a territorial list.

Address by Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, at the South East European University (SEEU), Tetovo, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 8 May 2007