Venice Commission issues opinion on Slovakia's draft constitutional amendments

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has issued today its urgent opinion on the draft amendments to the Constitution of the Slovak Republic concerning, amongst others, national identity, surrogacy and equal pay. This opinion, requested by the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was prepared through the urgent procedure so that it could be made available to the Slovak Parliament before it considers the draft amendments to the Constitution on 25 September 2025. [ . . . ] In the opinion, the Venice Commission welcomes the introduction in Article 36 of the Constitution of the guarantee of equal pay for men and women as an important step towards gender equality. As concerns the proposal to proclaim in Article 7 of the Constitution that the Slovak Republic "retains its sovereignty in particular in matters of national identity, consisting in particular of fundamental cultural and ethical issues […]", the Commission warns about the need for the definitions of "national identity" and "cultural and ethical issues" not to create a conflict with the existing international obligations of the Slovak Republic, notably under the Treaty of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights.
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