A significant provision is that it allows a judge who meets the retirement requirements to continue working until a new one takes office – which, it was assessed, would enable the regular functioning of the Constitutional Court. However, political abuses are not ruled out.
There are four key recommendations from the Venice Commission to the Ministry of Justice regarding the Law on the Constitutional Court, recalled Justice Minister Bojan Božović. They concern the retirement age of 66 years of age and 15 years of service, simpler retirement conditions, holding office until the election of a new judge, and exemption from voting for a judge who meets the conditions for retirement.
"The President of the Constitutional Court cannot participate in the session at which the occurrence of the reasons for the termination of his office is determined. Article 3 regulates the existing unblocking mechanism in such a way that when a judge of the Constitutional Court ceases to hold office due to fulfilling the conditions for old-age pension or due to the expiration of his mandate, the proposer does not propose or the Assembly does not elect a judge of the Constitutional Court to the vacant position, and the Constitutional Court therefore has fewer than four judges, the judge whose office has ceased may continue to hold office," said Božović.
This is controversial for Zoran Mikić, a representative of the Civic Movement URA.
"It is not good for our Constitutional Court to operate with a truncated composition, because then at least four judges need to agree on all issues, which is very difficult in that instance when there are some tricky issues," warns Mikić.
There will be no problem in determining the age limit, but neither will there be a quorum, says Europe Now MP Vasilije Čarapić.
"We will no longer have a blockage of the Constitutional Court, at least not because there are not enough judges," Čarapić points out.
However, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Sergej Sekulović, has a dilemma – what would happen if the judges were not elected within the stipulated deadline?
"And we are simply between these two extremes - to imagine a situation where the Constitutional Court objectively does not exist, that it exists only on paper, and that it cannot perform its function, and the request coming from the Venice Commission to extend the mandate of all judges of the Constitutional Court, we have chosen this intermediate solution. Aware of these challenges and dangers, we nevertheless give decisive priority to preserving the Constitutional Court and ensuring its functioning," explains Sekulović.
Whether increasing the retirement age to 67 in the Labor Law will be in conflict with the provisions of the constitutional law is a question for the Minister of Justice.
"We are working on a special law, the Law on Salaries for Holders of Judicial and Constitutional Court Positions, which, among other things, stipulates 66 years of age in order to make everything equal," said Božović.
After a debate, the Political System Committee supported the amendments to the Law on the Constitutional Court.
The Law on Courts and Court Experts has also been approved. Three thematic sessions on electoral legislation have been announced for the next two months.
