In a case referred to it by the Council of Europe’s Local and Regional Authorities Congress, the Council of Europe’s European Commission for Democracy Through Law (the ‘Venice Commission’) issued an opinion on Friday 6 October stating that Turkey’s emergency decrees 674 is incompatible with Turkey’s commitments as a member of the European Charter of Local Autonomy.
The Venice Commission says it is particularly concerned about the way the state of emergency legislation authorises central authorities to appoint unelected mayors, deputy mayors and municipal councillors and to exercise, without judicial control, discretionary power over the functioning of the municipalities in question.
The Commission urges the Turkish authorities to abolish measures taken under this decree that fail to strictly correspond to the state of emergency and to ensure that the new rules can only be applied during the duration of the state of emergency and that any permanent measure affecting local democracy is only taken under ordinary rules and procedures following genuine parliamentary debate.
The Venice Commission’s opinion, published on its website on Monday 9 October, states that if terrorism-related charges against local officials who have been suspended or removed from office are lifted, the officials should be returned to office according to rules and procedures that must be laid down. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)