During September 17-19, 2024, a bilateral meeting of representatives of Ukraine and the European Commission is taking place in Brussels (Belgium) to carry out an official screening of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law under negotiating Chapter 23 “Judiciary and Fundamental Rights”. The Ukrainian delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration – Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna.
On September 17, Commission members Vitalii Gatseliuk and Ruslan Sydorovych and other representatives of judicial governance bodies made presentations on the “Judiciary” block of the above mentioned negotiating section. The event was attended online by representatives of the Secretariat of the Commission – Director of the Department of Judicial Career Oleh Rybchuk and Deputy Head of the Department – Head of the Division of legal and normative work of the Legal Department Oleksandra Hunchenko.
Chapter 23, in particular, covers such areas as EU law and policy in the areas of independent and effective judiciary; prevention and fight against corruption as a threat to the stability of democratic institutions and the rule of law; fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by EU treaties and The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Ruslan Sydorovych informed about the measures to prevent corruption in the Supreme Court, including the verification of integrity declarations, declarations of family ties and the procedure for selecting judges. In the context of the declaration of a person authorized to perform state or local government functions, he also mentioned the role of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention and the 224 full review of such declarations of the Supreme Court judges conducted by the NACP in 2020-2024. In particular, according to his statement, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine reviewed 11 declarations of integrity of the Supreme Court judges during 2023-2024.
Mr Sydorovych drew attention to the main challenges in the legal and institutional framework that should guarantee the internal and external independence and impartiality of judges, as well as to the issue of qualification evaluation of current judges, which began after the constitutional changes of 2016. He noted that as of September 30, 2016, there were 6958 judges working in the courts of Ukraine and, given the absence of the full composition of the HQCJ for almost 4 years, a significant number of judges are required to undergo the qualification evaluation.
Answering the European side’s question about the vision of improving the efficiency of the Commission and its staff, Ruslan Sydorovych emphasized the need to implement the electronic judicial dossier as soon as possible, as well as to create an analytical department that would function within the Commission’s Secretariat to have the independent capacity to process information on current judges and candidates for judicial positions quickly and efficiently using modern digital and technical tools.
Vitalii Gatseliuk reported on the functioning of the Public Integrity Council, regular evaluation of judges, main problems and gaps in the funding of the judiciary. He recalled that on November 09, 2023, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and the PIC agreed on a list of indicators that indicate that a judge or a candidate for the position of a judge does not meet the criteria of integrity and professional ethics, as well as the principles of their application. As early as November 13, 2023, the HQCJ resumed the qualification evaluation of judges for their suitability for their positions, in which the Public Integrity Council is actively involved.
The Commission member highlighted that according to the latest legislative changes, in order to exercise their powers, PIC members have the right to have full access to the materials of the judicial dossier (dossier of a candidate for the position of judge). In its turn, the Commission approved the Procedure for access of the Public Integrity Council members to the judicial dossier (dossier of a candidate for the position of a judge) by its decision of May 22, 2024.
Regarding the periodic evaluation of judges, Vitalii Gatseliuk informed about plans to approve the Procedure and Methodology for Judicial Evaluation and Self-Evaluation by the end of 2024. The Commission is currently working on improving the document.
During the meeting, there was also a discussion on judicial training. Mr Gatseliuk presented plans to reform the curriculum, which will include a quality assurance system and modernization with a focus on EU law, integrity, judicial craft and international cooperation in this area. The key challenges and gaps in the judicial training system were also discussed in the context of the plans for the future activities of the National School of Judges of Ukraine.
In total, about 300 authorized representatives from various state institutions are taking part in the bilateral meeting both online and offline on behalf of the Ukrainian side.
The judiciary was represented by High Council of Justice Deputy Chair Dmytro Lukianov and Head of the HCJ Secretariat Mykhailo Shumylo, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Viktor Horodovenko, Judge of the Supreme Court in the Cassation Administrative Court Myroslava Bilak, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Supreme Court Rasim Babanly, and Deputy Head of the State Judicial Administration for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization Leonid Sapelnikov.
