The participants of the joint Conference of the Parliament and the National Platform of Georgia of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum discussed judicial reform.

“One of the recommendations of the European Commission concerns the establishment of the platforms for dialogue and the prospect for the discussions and thus, today’s conference meets one of the 9 priorities – to ensure room for dialogue and to, through civil society, have a prospect to share our positions with the representatives of certain political groups and hear their visions, including concerning these 9 priorities”, - the Chair of the Legal Issues Committee, Anri Okhanashvili stated.

In his speech, he thanked the participants of the Conference reiterating their positive merit in the adoption of a positive recommendation concerning the candidate status.

“We have set up the working groups, including on judicial reform. This group aims at ensuring compliance with the best European and international standards. We, through the civil platform, allowed the representatives of civil society to get engaged and participate in the activity of the group, similar as the parliamentary opposition, however, some representatives of the opposition boycotted the group”.

It was the efforts of the working group that the legislation now reflects the solutions of lots of issues, including in line with the Venice Commission recommendations.

“When the European Commission made a positive decision, it took into account certain steps we have taken related to the judiciary. Thus, the speculations that nothing allegedly has been done and declining of the efforts made are inexpedient. We cherished the expectation to demonstrate the approaches of some EU countries concerning the judiciary, though none of the EU state models were mentioned by the reporters”, - he stated adding that the system reform has been undertaken in 2017-2018 and respective legal norms are reflected in the Constitution.

“Besides, we, to a reasonable extent, established the model of High Council of Justice and submitted to the Venice Commission for the opinion. In line with the issued opinion, this model mostly complies with international standards and thus, is widely acceptable. So, we revised the model, which is mirrored in the Venice Commission opinion. Hence, the system reform has been undertaken”.