Ministers' Deputies
Notes on the Agenda



682 Meeting, 6[-7] October 1999
10 Legal Questions

10.1 European Commission for Democracy through Law
Request for observer status from the Republic of Korea

Notes(99)785 20 September 1999

Action

The representatives on the Committee of Ministers of the member States of the Partial Agreement establishing the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) ^{footnote 1} are invited to accede to the request from the Republic of Korea to be granted observer status with the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

The Secretary General received a letter dated 13 August 1999 from Mr Hong Soon Young, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, requesting observer status for his country with the European Commission for Democracy through Law.

This letter is appended to these Notes.

Under the terms of Article 3, paragraphs 3 and 4, of the Statute of the Commission:

"3. The Committee of Ministers may unanimously decided to admit any European non-member state of the Council of Europe to participate in the work of the Commission. After consultation with the Commission, the state concerned may appoint either an associate member or an observer to sit on the Commission.

4. Any other state may be invited under the same modalities to appoint an observer."

It should be noted that, under the terms of Article 2 of the Statute of the Commission, the expression "Committee of Ministers" denotes the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in its composition limited to the member states of the Partial Agreement.

To date, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Bosnia-Herzegovina have been admitted as associate members; Argentina, Canada, the Holy See, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uruguay and the USA have been admitted as observers.

Item 10.1

The Representatives on the Committee of Ministers of the member states of the Partial Agreement establishing the European Commission for Democracy through Law ^{footnote 2} agreed to invite the Republic of Korea to appoint an observer to sit on the European Commission for Democracy through Law.

13 August 1999

Mr Secretary General,

I have the honour to inform your Excellency that the Republic of Korea would like to participate, as an observer, in the work of the European Commission for Democracy through Law, in accordance with the provisions of Article 3, paragraph 4 of its Statute. To this end, I would be grateful if your Excellency could submit this request to the Committee of Ministers for consideration.

The Korean Government is very much interested in the work of the Commission for democratic reform in Central and Eastern Europe and would like to learn from the activities of the Commission in terms of their legal and institutional aspects in preparation for Korean unification.

I would like to remind you that the Korean Government has already shown its interest in co-operation with the Commission by providing the Commission’s Centre on Constitutional Justice with decisions on a number of cases made by the Constitutional Court of Korea.

In the case of a positive reply, the Korean Government intends to appoint Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of Belgium and Representative to the European Union as an observer to sit on the Commission.

Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration.

(Signed) :

Hong Soon Young

Minister

Mr Daniel TARSCHYS

Secretary General of the

Council of Europe

STRASBOURG

1. Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovak republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, "the former Yougoslav Republic of Macedonia", Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

2. Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovak republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, "the former Yougoslav Republic of Macedonia", Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.