Ukraine – Crimea and Russian Federation. Request by the Secretary General for the Venice Commission’s opinions on the referendum in Crimea and the Draft federal constitutional law of the Russian Federation on admitting new subjects into the Federation.

By a letter of 7 March 2014, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe asked the Venice Commission to prepare two urgent opinions: on the compatibility with constitutional principles of the decision of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine to hold a referendum on becoming a constituent territory of the Russian Federation or restoring Crimea’s constitution of 1992, and on the compatibility with international law of the draft Federal Constitutional Law of the Russian Federation on “Amending the Federal Constitutional Law on the procedure of admission to the Russian Federation and creation of a new subject of the Russian Federation in its composition”.

Both opinions will be discussed by the Venice Commission at its forthcoming Plenary Session (21-22 March 2014).