The Political Council of the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia political union has released a statement regarding the lifetime appointment of judges.

According to the statement, active discussions linked to the problem of courts are underway in the public space and amid these discussions, the ruling team that always listens to their society made the decision at the very beginning to postpone the selection of candidates for membership of the Supreme Court.

“At the same time, the development of the procedures and criteria for the selection of candidates for the positions of judges of the Supreme Court with broad involvement of the parties concerned has started. It was pledged that candidates would occupy positions of judges of the Supreme Court on the basis of objective criteria and as a result of an individual and free vote. The High Council of Justice will definitely select Supreme Court judges on the basis of an open and transparent procedure. They will be elected on the basis of an equally open and transparent procedure in the Georgian Parliament. Despite such an approach of the ruling team, the aforementioned discussions unfortunately often take an unhealthy form.

The chairman of the party and the ruling team expressed readiness to discuss the problem of lifelong appointment of judges within the frames of the constitution. However, without coordination with their own team, individual members of the parliamentary majority prepared a draft law that definitely goes contrary to the provisions of the Georgian constitution in force developed in order to ensure independence of courts in accordance with recommendations of the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission. It should also be taken into account that if the aforementioned initiative is adopted in the current form, the number of judges in courts of general jurisdiction is going to halve and the problem of overburdened courts and delays in case hearings is going to deepen. In conditions, where according to conclusions of our international partners, the number of judges in Georgia needs to be increased at least by a hundred and at best doubled, the halving of the number of judges will create grave problems in the judiciary system and may even paralyse it. Given the aforementioned, it is clear that this draft law cannot receive support from the parliamentary majority.

At the same time, we express full readiness to develop proposals for lifelong appointment of judges in line with the Georgian constitution and recommendations of the Council of Europe on the basis of consultations with the parties concerned, proposals that will not aggravate the problem of overburdened courts. For this purpose, we urge the Venice Commission to become involved in the aforementioned process from the very outset.

The ruling team is continuing to work on the fourth wave of the judiciary reform. A broad spectrum of parties concerned are involved in the working process, including our international partners - the Office of the Council of Europe, the US Embassy, and representatives of the EU and German international cooperation societies, which we are particularly thankful to. Due to our joint efforts, the fourth phase of the reform that encompasses reforms in the High Council of Justice and the High School of Justice, and the problems of disciplinary proceedings and overburdened courts, will immediately resume and will definitely be completed before the end of the current parliamentary session. Lifelong appointment of judges is also considered in this format. We urge all those, who are really interested in reinforcing the independence of the judiciary system, raising its efficiency, and strengthening trust in the system to become openly and constructively involved in the discussion of the fourth wave of reforms, which are to ensure further reinforcement of one of the most important gains of the democratic breakthrough of 2012 - the independence of the judiciary.

The ruling team will act in accordance with the interests of the state and society, creating all necessary conditions for ensuring the independence of the judiciary system and raise public trust,” the statement reads.