European Commission Advises Kyiv to Restart Judicial Reform

Ukraine can resolve the situation with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by restarting judicial reform, European Commission’s Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Katariná Mathernová said at the “Dialogues About Reforms: On the way to Vilnius” online forum.

“What we see now is the constitutional dilemma in which the country exists. We have a situation in which the highest court, in fact, eliminated one of the key participants in the anti-corruption architecture created due to great cooperation between the Ukrainian authorities and international partners, civil society actors,” Mathernová said.

According to her, now it is possible to get out of the situation by restarting a comprehensive judicial reform.

“I can definitely say on behalf of the EU and a number of our international partners that the international community is ready to help Ukraine find a way out of this really important dilemma,” the diplomat stressed.

Matti Maasikas, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, also took part in the forum. He called on the Ukrainian authorities, in particular the Parliament, to take action to ensure that Ukraine’s commitments to the EU are fulfilled after the CCU’s decision on anti-corruption infrastructure.

“Some of Ukraine’s commitments have been called into question by the Constitutional Court. Now, the elected leaders of Ukraine, and this primarily depends on the Parliament, must face the challenges and make every effort to restore both the asset declaration system and legal certainty around the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, so that Ukraine’s commitments are met in full,” Maasikas said.

According to him, political leaders should make the utmost efforts to continue reforms. The diplomat also reminded that the European Union had mobilised EUR 15 billion to support Ukraine since 2014.

Bohdan Marusyak