The Constitutional Council

The Constitutional Council was commissioned to examine the same matters as it had been intended that the Constitutional Assembly would examine, and it too was granted the same authorisation to give attention to further issues as well.

The Constitutional Council met for the first time on 6 April 2011 and was in operation until 29 July of the same year; on that date it presented its proposals on a new Constitution to the Speaker of the Althingi. The letter accompanying the proposals stated that the council had been unanimous in its view that all the electorate should be given the opportunity to vote on a new Constitution before the Althingi adopted a final position on the proposals.

The public had unrestricted access to the work of the Constitutional Council, as comments and suggestions could be submitted via the council’s website while its work was in progress. In this way, the public was enabled to make its views known in continuation of the National Consultative Meeting regarding the review of the Constitution.

In accordance with the Althingi’s resolution of 22 February 2012, the Constitutional Council met again on 8-12 March 2012 to discuss some questions and proposals made by the Althingi’s Constitutional and Supervisory Committee regarding possible amendments. The replies given by the council set forth some alternatives which were not regarded as interfering with the internal coherence of its original proposals.