It is crucial that the first amendments on the country's decentralization and judicial system “must be adopted before the summer break for the first reading in order to be finally adopted in September or October in the second reading,” Buquicchio said in an interview.
Buquicchio indicated that the amendments should be adopted before Ukraine holds local elections in October so that people know which bodies will exist and what mandates and objectives they will have. The constitution should also include provisions on the special status of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the Commission president said.
The Commission president suggested that the Ukrainian authorities should implement a step-by-step approach in tackling all urgent issues.
Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to set up a commission to amend the country's constitution.
Constitutional reform aimed at decentralizing power in Ukraine was among the key provisions of the February 12 Minsk agreements worked out by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine and later signed by the Kiev government and the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Venice Commission is an advisory body of the Council of Europe on constitutional matters which provides emergency constitutional aid to states in transition.
