THE VENICE COMMISSION AND THE EUROPEAN COMMON HERITAGE

The article analyzes the contribution of the Venice Commission to the "European common heritage", a notion which was introduced especially for helping the Eastern European countries in their transition to democracy. One of the most remarkable examples of the Venice Commission's work is the Code of good practices in electoral matters which has had a strong impact on the legislation of several States and on many decisions taken by international bodies. The paper compares two different reactions to the reports and opinions of the Venice Commission. Firstly, the article studies the response to the Opinion on the Spanish Organic Law 15/2015 which gave new powers of execution to the Constitutional Court. The Opinion did not lead to a change in the law, although it may have guided the reaction of the Constitutional Court in the crisis with Catalonia. Secondly, the paper examines the high degree of influence of the Venice Commission on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, and the way in which the European Commission has followed the Venice Commission's opinions to confront the infringement of the rule of law in Poland.