On June 10, 2021, an online discussion was held on the financial situation of the judiciary in Ukraine, organized with the support of the Council of Europe Projects “Support for judicial institutions and processes to strengthen access to justice in Ukraine” and “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights”.
The participants of the event were presented a draft report on the results of legal and financial analysis of public funding of the judicial system of Ukraine in 2018-2021, conducted by experts of the audit and consulting company “Ernst & Young” with the support of the above-mentioned projects.
In particular, the report draws conclusions on the impact of funding on guaranteeing the right to a fair trial, as well as provides general recommendations on measures to be taken to resolve the identified problematic aspects of the financing of the judiciary in Ukraine. It is planned that this document will be finalized on the results of the discussion and published on the official website of the Council of Europe.
Particular attention is paid to the discussion of the instruments of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) in the field of financing judicial systems in the Council of Europe, existing models of financing justice systems in the world, at the same time it was analyzed the possibility of using some of the instruments to improve the domestic court budgeting system.
The Сommission was represented by the Head of the Secretariat Olena Ponomarenko and the Deputy Head of the Secretariat Oleksandr Bystrushkin.
The event was also attended by former Chairman of the HQCJU, CEPEJ member from Ukraine Sergii Koziakov, project coordinator of the Department for Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation of the Council of Europe Andriy Kavakin, representatives of the Supreme Court, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, Council of Judges of Ukraine, Parliament of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, international technical assistance projects and legal media.