Paylaş | 29 May 2024

President of the Turkish Constitutional Court Mr. Kadir Özkaya participated in the XIXth Congress of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, held in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, on 21-24 May 2023. The Congress was attended by 35 member constitutional courts/supreme courts, along with representatives from the Venice Commission, the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the World Conference on Constitutional Justice, the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of Africa, and various associations/conferences of constitutional courts.

President Özkaya, who attended the Congress upon the invitation of the term-chair of the Conference, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, was accompanied by Mr. Mücahit Aydın, Deputy Secretary General of the Turkish Constitutional Court.

The Congress commenced with the Meeting of the Circle of Presidents with the participation of the Presidents of the CECC Member Courts. In his remarks at the Meeting of the Circle of Presidents, President Özkaya emphasised the significance of cooperation between constitutional courts for the exchange of experience and information and expressed his appreciation for participating in the meeting. At the meeting, the chairmanship of the Conference was handed over to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Albania. A decision has also been made to authorise the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic to establish a permanent office in order to fulfil information processing and archival services of the Conference. Additionally, a special committee was established to draft a report on the membership application submitted by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.

Following the solemn opening, the Congress proceeded with the academic sessions. Three sessions were held on “Interaction Between Constitutional Courts and Supranational Courts”“Political and Legal Within the Jurisdiction of the Constitutional Courts” and “Safeguarding Constitutional Principles During the State of Emergency”. The sessions were followed by the presentation of the general report on the evaluations made under the theme “The Forms and Limits of Judicial Deference: The Experience of the Constitutional Courts”.

Throughout the Congress, President Özkaya conducted bilateral meetings with the presidents of the participating constitutional courts.

As part of its visit to Moldova, the delegation of the Turkish Constitutional Court also paid a visit to the Turkish Embassy in Chișinău and met with the Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye to Moldova, Mr. Uygar Mustafa Sertel.