Venice Commission
In December 2011 the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued its Opinion on the draft law. According to Ukrayinska Pravda, the Venice Commission did not notice in the draft law of Kolesnichenko any guarantees of the protection of the Ukrainian language and later came to a decision that the bill is another "pre-election tool" for the Party of Regions. V. Kolesnichenko, one of the authors of the law, claimed the 2011 analysis of the Venice Commission was "generally supportive". The opponents noted that the analysis contained strong criticism, specifically about the failure to protect the role of Ukrainian as the State language.