On 29 October 2024, at the initiative of the Coalition of NGOs, namely Agency for Legislative Initiatives, Transparency International Ukraine, ZMINA Human Rights Centre, Tomorrow’s Lawyer and Ukrainian Bar Association, the key findings of the Shadow Report to Chapter 23 “Justice and Fundamental Rights” and the Second EU-Ukraine bilateral session on Chapter 23 (Cluster 1 “Fundamentals of the EU Accession Process”) were discussed.
During the event, the heads of judicial and anti-corruption bodies shared their vision of the current state and next steps in Ukraine’s integration into the EU in terms of justice, fighting corruption and ensuring fundamental rights, and discussed it together with representatives of the civil sector and international partners.
Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine – Minister of Justice of Ukraine, stressed that cooperation with civil society was the basis of reforms bringing Ukraine closer to EU membership.
For her part, Katarina Mathernova, Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine, noted the uniqueness of discussions on Chapter 23’s fundamental issues in the context of Ukraine’s existential war. Ms Mathernova thanked the study’s authors and the organisations that had performed extensive work on drawing up this Report and stressed its role in Ukraine’s European integration process.
Svitlana Matviienko, Executive Director at the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, noted that the ALI and its Coalition partners had done everything to ensure that the bilateral meetings were successful and that everyone had analytical and objective information collected with the involvement of a wide range of experts.
The discussion under the Justice pillar focused on the Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Judiciary, capacity building of key judicial institutions, and cooperation between civil society organisations and governmental authorities to successfully implement the EU integration roadmap. The discussion panel was moderated by Karina Aslanian, Head of the Rule of Law at ALI, and Rasim Babanly, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Supreme Court.
The speakers of this panel were Stanislav Kravchenko, President of the Supreme Court; Dmytro Lukianov, Deputy Chair of the High Council of Justice; Andrii Pasichnyk, Chair of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine; Viktor Horodovenko, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine; Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office; and Viktoriia Litvinova, Deputy Prosecutor General.
Rasim Babanly spoke about the September EU-Ukraine bilateral session, which was dedicated to negotiating Chapter 23 in Brussels as part of the screening of Ukrainian legislation for compliance with EU legal norms.
Iryna Mudra emphasised the importance of cooperation between civil society and authorities in moving towards a common goal – the European future of Ukraine. She also highlighted the key points of the draft Strategy for the Development of the Justice System and Constitutional Justice, which was developed based on an analysis of the current state of the judiciary and the justice system as a whole. Iryna Mudra also noted that the Strategy contained measures to address many of the issues highlighted in the Shadow Report.
Stanislav Kravchenko spoke about the readiness of Ukrainian judicial practice to harmonise with European legislation and practice, the role of the Supreme Court in this, and generally about the stage at which Ukraine is in this process.
Dmytro Lukianov shared his experience in the EU-Ukraine negotiation process and spoke about further risks faced by the High Council of Justice in its work.
Andrii Pasichnyk spoke about the results of the selection procedure carried out by the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine to solve the judiciary’s staffing problems and the progress made in fulfilling international obligations in the process of European integration.
Viktor Horodovenko shared his vision of the role of the Constitutional Court in the process of European integration. In particular, he spoke about the challenges related to the Court’s institutional capacity in the context of a full-scale invasion.
Viktoriia Litvinova highlighted the progress and challenges of the current stage of reforming the public prosecution service and the Prosecutor General’s Office in the context of European integration. In particular, she emphasised the important role of sustainable transformation of the law enforcement sector and prosecution authorities in bringing Ukraine closer to full EU membership.
Yevhen Krapyvin, an expert of the Tomorrow’s Lawyer NGO, shared his vision of prosecution reform. Daria Pysarenko, Executive Director at Tomorrow’s Lawyer NGO, also spoke about the need for systemic reform of the bar.
In addition, during the thematic panel, a Q&A session was held with the participants of the event, namely representatives of organisations from the Coalition of NGOs that drew up the Shadow Report, the expert community and representatives of relevant judicial institutions. The questions covered the following aspects:
- Development and support of prosecutorial self-government;
- Accountability of the bar and bar self-government bodies to the lawyers themselves and to the public;
- Institutional capacity of the judiciary, in particular, the functioning of advisory bodies – the Ethics Council and the Selection Commission for Selecting Members of the HQCJ;
- News on the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System (UJITS).
For reference. The Shadow Report prepared by experts from relevant NGOs led by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives includes the following sections:
- Judicial reform (Agency for Legislative Initiatives);
- Combating corruption (Transparency International Ukraine);
- Protection of fundamental rights and freedoms (ZMINA Human Rights Centre);
- Reform of the public prosecution service (Tomorrow’s Lawyer);
- Reform of the bar (Tomorrow’s Lawyer);
- Legal education reform (Ukrainian Bar Association).
The Shadow Report was monitored, analysed and prepared in February – August 2024.
The report has been prepared with the financial support of the European Union within the EU-funded Project Pravo-Justice. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives and other NGOs and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
