Parliament is expected to discuss and pass draft of constitutional amendments with its third and final reading on October 15.

The voting was originally planned for October 12, but it was postponed by the Parliament, citing the need to give more time to lawmakers to study the final text before the vote.

Just few days before the postponement the Council of Europe’s advisory body for legal affairs, Venice Commission, has called on the Georgian authorities to wait for its final recommendations and to take them “into careful consideration” before finalizing adoption of constitutional amendments.

The Venice Commission is expected to discuss Georgia’s constitutional reform and adopt its final recommendations at its session on October 15.

The Venice Commission’s call was complemented on October 12 with a similar request from two co-rapporteurs for Georgia from the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who called on the Georgian Parliament not to hurry with the adoption of new constitution.

“It is important to ensure that the constitutional amendments are adopted in an all-inclusive process based on consultation and consensus, and that Venice Commission recommendations are taken into account,” the co-rapporteurs Kastriot Islami and Michael Jensen said in a jont statement on October 12.

“Adopting these amendments before the final opinion of the Venice Commission has been issued will only give rise to unnecessary criticism that the constitution was changed in a hurry,” they said.