Willem Aldershoff: The EU must help resolve constitutional crisis in Kyiv

Demonstrators burn smoke bombs in the yellow-blue colors of the Ukrainian flag during a protest action of representatives of different Ukrainian political parties and movements outside the Constitutional Court building in Kyiv on Nov. 3, 2020. Days earlier, on Oct. 30, the court blocked a number of anti-corruption laws including on free public access to officials' declarations, a significant rollback of Ukraine's anti-corruption reforms. (AFP)

Photo by AFP

On October 27, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruled that the asset declaration system adopted by parliament in 2016 was unconstitutional. Eleven judges voted in favor, while four voted against.

The declaration system obliges Ukrainian state officials to list all their main possessions. It enables the National Agency for Corruption Prevention to compare assets with income in order to identify and prosecute possible corruption. The declarations form the backbone of the fight against corruption and are widely regarded as one of the central reforms introduced since the country’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity.