Venice Commission to Consider Bill on Transition Period for Donbas

The Ukrainian side has submitted to the Venice Commission a draft law on the state policy of the transition period for Crimea and Donbas, according to Yuna Potiomkina, advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

“Apart from consideration in parliament, a very important point is that we have submitted this bill to the Venice Commission. And this is extremely important because the norms that we have spelled out in the bill are quite new, non-standard for the Ukrainian legal field. That’s why having such an expertise is also strengthening the project,” the advisor said.

She also announced the visit of a delegation of the Commission representatives to Ukraine, during which the document will be discussed.

“In September, we expect the first communication with the Venice Commission, a delegation that will come here for detailed communication on our draft law. Between 1 October and 10 October, a meeting of the Venice Commission will take place, after which we await an official decision,” Potiomkina clarified.

She stressed that this document “sets a certain tone, certain directions for the further package of legislative acts on the transition period.” And work on the laws regulating the degree of responsibility for certain offenses will continue.

As a reminder, in January, the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine published the text of the draft law on the state policy of the transition period for review. In particular, the authors refused to use the term ‘collaborator.’ The Ukrainian authorities believe that most people in the Russian-occupied territories are hostages.

Bohdan Marusyak