On Feb. 11, the European Parliament passed a milestone resolution on Ukraine, assessing the country’s progress on the path of reform.
It was passed by 526 deputies, with 79 opposing the resolution.
The resolution is an extensive report that evaluates Ukraine’s progress in implementing reforms in key sectors, including rule of law, the fight against corruption, human rights, and economics.
The resolution was passed within the framework of the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. The agreement was signed in September 2014, following a 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution that erupted after then-President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement with the EU and instead said the country will seek a union with Russia.
The resolution, based on a report prepared by Michael Gahler, a EU parliament member from Germany, covers the key areas where Ukraine’s progress stagnated. It calls upon Ukraine and a number of EU bodies to intensify cooperation.
While the resolution praises Ukraine for making headway in several areas, it warns that it’s not enough.
Here are the main areas covered by the resolution, and the EU’s conclusions and recommendations for Ukraine:
Judicial reform
“(The European Union) regrets that the judiciary is still one of the least-trusted institutions in Ukraine and is seriously concerned by the state it has been in since the October 2019 reform which led to the dismantling and reconstitution of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ),” the resolution reads. “(The EU also) regrets the fact that in the past the HQCJ did not take into account the opinion of the Public Integrity Council in its reassessment of judges, and urges it to do so in the future in order to fill vacancies in lower court instances with judges fulfilling ethical and integrity.”
The European Parliament also said that a new High Qualification Commission should be created “based on a transparent selection procedure, with the involvement of international experts.”
The old High Qualification Commission, which often appointed tainted judges despite the recommendations of Public Integrity Council, an advisory body that vets judges, was dissolved in 2019 when Zelensky signed his first judicial reform bill.
However, the authorities failed to implement another clause of the bill — on creating a new High Qualification Commission with the participation of foreign experts.
In June 2020, Zelensky submitted another bill to launch a new High Qualification Commission. Legal experts and activists lambasted this bill because it would give the discredited High Council of Justice, the judiciary’s highest governing body, full control over the selection of commission members and minimize the role of foreign experts.
The European Parliament also “strongly insists on an integrity check of the unreformed High Council of Justice (HCJ) and urges the Ukrainian authorities to continue and accelerate the reform of the judiciary in order not to undermine the work of the newly established anti-corruption institutions.”
The High Council of Justice was involved in numerous corruption scandals and is known for appointing tainted judges.
According to Ukraine’s memorandum with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine was supposed to recruit foreign experts to fire tainted members of the High Council of Justice if they violate ethics and integrity standards. The IMF’s October 2020 deadline was missed.
Constitutional Court
The European Parliament also said it is concerned “by the outcome of the Oct. 27, 2020 ruling of the Constitutional Court, which created a legal gap in the Ukrainian anti-corruption architecture and seriously weakened the National Agency for Preventing Corruption.”
On Oct. 27, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling that effectively destroyed Ukraine’s entire asset declaration system for state officials, eliminating a crucial pillar of the country’s anti-corruption infrastructure. Several judges of the court voted for the decision despite having a conflict of interest, according to the National Agency for Preventing Corruption.
The EU urged “the Ukrainian authorities to continue their efforts to reinstate a fully operational, effective and comprehensive institutional architecture to fight corruption, including in the judiciary, while fully preserving the latter’s independence from the executive and legislative powers.”
“(The EU) underscores that a fully empowered NAPC plays a crucial role in this context and that the Constitutional Court’s ruling should not be used as a pretext to weaken or sideline it; expresses its utmost concern about apparent attempts by vested interests to undermine the country’s achievements in the fight against corruption and overall democratic reforms,” the European Parliament said.
Anti-corruption institutions
The European Parliament said it is “pleased with the work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which is arguably the country’s most effective anti-corruption institution and further emphasizes the need to strengthen NABU’s independence.”
“(The parliament) urges that the law on NABU (to) be brought into line with the constitution and the recent Constitutional Court decision and that transparent, depoliticized and merit-based selection procedures be prescribed for the Heads of both NABU and of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SAPO), as well as the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), including a credible integrity check.”
The European Parliament added that it “regrets attempts to attack and undermine anti-corruption institutions by members of the Verkhovna Rada, in particular attempts to dismiss the Director of NABU and the opaque selection process of the Director of SAPO.”
In 2020 the discredited Constitutional Court canceled the decree on the appointment of NABU Chief Artem Sytnyk and parts of the NABU law in an apparent effort to destroy the bureau’s independence. At the same time, a court led by Pavlo Vovk, a suspect in a graft case, ordered Sytnyk’s dismissal despite having no such jurisdiction.
On Jan. 27, the Verkhovna Rada’s law enforcement committee also approved a bill that would allow Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to take cases away from the NABU without court approval.
In 2020 the Rada also appointed controversial commissioners to appoint a new chief anti-corruption prosecutor. The commissioners do not meet integrity and professional experience standards, according to anti-corruption activists.
Meanwhile, no competition to choose a new head of the State Investigation Bureau has been held since its head Roman Truba was fired in 2019.
Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty
The EU parliament resolution has a separate section concerning Ukrainian territorial integrity.
Russia has led a war against Ukraine since 2014, killing 13,000 people and occupying parts of Ukrainian territory.
The EU “strongly condemns” Russia’s ongoing occupation of Crimea and eastern parts of Donbas, the ongoing militarization of Crimea and the constant violation of the rights of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars living under occupation.
According to the resolution, Russia currently has well over 30,000 troops in Crimea alone and successfully deployed new surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missile systems, nuclear-capable submarines and strategic bombers.
Concerning Crimea, the resolution refers to the Geneva Convention and explicitly mentions that Russia bears full responsibility for meeting the needs of the population, notably water supply.
In 2020, Russian occupying forces have been actively blaming Ukraine for closing the North Crimea Canal that supplied the peninsula with water.
The EU has also referred to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Russia is a party, which says that an occupying power may not compel residents of the occupied territory to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces. Russia has been actively conscripting residents of occupied Crimea to serve in its armed forces.
This goes in line with the Russian actions of actively substituting the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar population of the peninsula with Russians.
Read More: Russia forces Ukrainians out of Crimea & Crimean Tatar recalls harassment, torture in Russia-annexed Crimea
“(The EU) condemns the Russian Federation for settling Russian citizens in occupied Crimea and the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, thus upsetting the balance between holders of Russian passports and Ukrainians, the continuous issuing of Russian passports to residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” says the report.
However, no actual proposals to resolve the issue were proposed.
The EU encouraged Ukraine to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Donbas by following the Minsk Agreements and supported the establishment of a Crimea International Platform to help de-occupy the peninsula.
Human rights protection in Crimea and the Donbas
Violations of human rights in Crimea and the Donbas have been bringing the condemnation of EU officials ever since Russia seized the peninsula from Ukraine and unleashed the war in the east of the country in 2014.
In the Feb. 11 resolution, the EU notes that Russia’s and Kremlin-backed separatists’ violations of freedom of expression, faith, and the right to peaceful assembly are “large-scale and permanent” and strongly condemns them.
Among such violations, the EU lists forced conscription, deportation, illegal and forceful issue of Russian passports, restrictions on education and language rights, arbitrary detention, and tortures. The EU also “calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all illegally detained and imprisoned Ukrainian citizens” in Crimea and in Russia.
The situation worsened in the light of the global coronavirus pandemic, the EU resolution notes, as it calls on the Russia-backed separatists to cooperate with the legitimate Ukrainian government to ensure people’s access to treatment.
“(The EU strongly condemns) restrictive measures such as the unilateral closure of checkpoints and denied access to UN and humanitarian missions, which are particularly worrying during the current pandemic,” the text reads.
In November, Ukraine opened seven checkpoints between the government-controlled territory and the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine, including two new ones, in the towns of Zolote and Shchastya, as part of its commitments at the Normandy Summit that took place in December 2019. However, the authorities of the occupied areas have kept their checkpoints closed, using the pandemic as an excuse. In a Nov. 17 report, Human Rights Watch called the restrictions on movement “excessive, confusing, and arbitrary” and said they block civilians’ access to healthcare, pensions and their families.
Read more: Hard Divide: Russia rips families apart by closing Donbas
Currently, there is only one checkpoint open in both directions, Stanytsia Luhanska, and the Olenivka checkpoint on the occupied side is open twice a week.
New sanctions to come
The EU also calls on the European Commission and European External Action Service — the block’s diplomatic service managing its relations with counties outside of it — to extend the power of the EU global human rights sanctions regime to Ukraine.
Adopted on Dec. 7, 2020, the mechanism enables the EU to maintain a list of human rights violators around the globe and impose on them various sanctions, such as visa bans or asset freeze.
This regime is something similar to Magnitsky legislation that Canada, the U.S., and the U.K enforced following the death of a lawyer and tax auditor Sergei Magnitsky in Russia in 2009. He blew the whistle about corruption within the state, was thrown to jail for it and beaten up.
“(This will allow) sanctions to be applied against individuals and companies involved in grave human rights violations, paying particular attention to the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in Crimea and in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and sanctions against those responsible for other crimes, including corruption,” the resolution reads.
The EU also calls on Ukraine to introduce its own version of the so-called Magnitsky legislation.
Language law
In its resolution, the EU also says it “takes note” of the law on supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language.
The language law was passed in 2019, but its implementation has been taking place in stages. The latest part of it came in effect in January: Now all services, including in restaurants, have to be offered in the Ukrainian language by default.
The resolution calls on Ukraine to abide by the recommendations of the Venice Commission: “respect the right of communities to fully use their own language and proceed with the highest degree of consideration and balance towards national minorities, their languages and their rights to education.” The law is set to transfer all public schools to the Ukrainian language, which upset ethnic minorities.
The EU also asked Ukraine to grant the Commissioner for the Protection of the Official Language powers to monitor whether minority languages can be used freely in Ukraine.
Protecting media, activists
Ukrainian oligarch-controlled media, disinformation promoted by Kremlin-friendly resources and constant attacks on independent media have drawn the attention of European politicians and diplomats.
“(The EU) regrets the fact that the political climate in the country has worsened, with intimidation, hate speech and political pressure being widely used for political purposes,” says the report.
Human rights organization ZMINA reported 101 cases of attacks and persecution of activists in Ukraine in 2020. According to ZMINA’s annual report, the most dangerous activist causes in Ukraine are fighting corruption, defending the environment and protecting the rights of LGBTQ people.
“The state, represented by the Interior Ministry, simply does not investigate attacks on activists,” anti-corruption activist and lawyer Halyna Chyzhyk told the Kyiv Post.
Part of these attacks were promoted on pro-Russian TV channels, telegram groups and websites.
Read More: Muted: Zelensky strikes hard against Kremlin’s agents in Ukraine
Concerning disinformation, “the EU continues to support Ukraine in countering hybrid threats and tackling disinformation and fake news.”
In recent years, the Russian propaganda, spread by pro-Russian lawmakers, led by Viktor Medvedchuk, became so explicit that Zelensky, on Feb. 2, signed a decree issuing personal sanctions against pro-Russian lawmaker Taras Kozak and his three nationwide TV channels – NewsOne, Channel 112, and ZIK.
As a result of Zelensky’s decree, the channels have been immediately shut down.
“(The EU) regrets the fact that the political climate in the country has worsened, with intimidation, hate speech and political pressure being widely used for political purposes,” the report reads.
Gender equality and LGBTQ rights
The EU urges the Ukrainian government and other authorities to improve women’s representation and equal treatment at all levels both in political and societal life.
The report also points at women, including women entrepreneurs, as to those who suffered from negative effects of the pandemic the most. Cases of domestic violence during the lockdown significantly rose across the world and in Ukraine.
Read more: Under quarantine, Ukrainian victims of domestic violence struggle to access help
Thus the EU called on Ukraine to combat gender-based violence.
The resolution also addresses the problem of violent attacks and hate crimes against LGBTQ persons, something that takes place in Ukraine quite often.
The EU called on Ukraine to investigate such attacks and establish legislation that “ensures freedom of belief, counters the continued discrimination against LGBTQ persons, feminist activists, persons with disabilities and minorities, and to enhance the protection of their rights.”
Moreover, the EU expressed regret that Ukraine’s legislation does not provide criminal charges for those responsible for hatred or violence on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity and recommended the parliament to amend the Criminal Code accordingly.
Economy, state-owned enterprises, oligarchs
The EU resolution points out the low trade volume and the “relatively low amount of foreign direct investments that are coming into the country.”
However, the situation is improving. According to the resolution, in 2019, Ukrainian imports from the EU grew by 12.3%, while exports grew by 9.7%, amounting to 43.3 billion euros.
Trade between the EU and Ukraine rose by 49% and the EU remains Ukraine’s main trading partner, accounting for 40% of its trade in 2019. Ukraine is the EU’s 18th biggest trading partner, accounting for a mere 1.1% of the EU’s total trade.
Ukraine’s trade deficit with the EU has increased to 5.1 billion euros.
The EU also acknowledges the increasing migration of workers from Ukraine to the EU. The current seasonal workers “emigration rates of between 2.2 and 2.7 million individuals (annually), equate to 13-16% of total employment in Ukraine,” the report reads.
“Remittances from migrants represent an inflow equivalent to more than 8% of Ukraine’s GDP.”
The EU “reiterates the need to address the brain drain in Ukraine by promoting quality and inclusive education and training programs and creating job opportunities with a view to providing socio-economic perspectives for young people and families in their local communities.”
Among the biggest shortcomings, the resolution mentions that “no visible effects have been achieved in the de-oligarchization of the country.”
According to the EU, “oligarchs have a strong impact on the Ukrainian economy and politics, media ownership and influence over the judiciary and the law enforcement system.” The EU calls upon Ukrainian authorities to speed up the process of de-oligarchization, making the economy more transparent.
The EU also notes that Ukraine has a surplus of state-owned enterprises and “urges Ukraine to advance the privatization of state-owned enterprises in order to modernize and improve the functioning of its economy and avoid oligarchization.”
Among the steps Ukraine has taken to part ways with the vast shady interest of Ukrainian oligarchs, the EU praised the adoption of the law lifting the moratorium on the selling of farmland and the passing of the bank law.
According to the resolution, the farmland law should contribute to the unlocking of Ukraine’s huge potential in the agricultural sector, while the bank law reinforces the banking system and prevents PrivatBank from being returned to its former owners, oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolubov, who are suspected of stealing over $5.5 billion from Ukraine’s largest bank when they owned it. Kolomoisky and Bogolubov deny wrongdoing.
Health problems
According to the EU, Ukrainian authorities need to reform the country’s health system, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered vast gaps in Ukrainian medical procurement.
According to UNICEF, COVID-19 has created both a healthcare and a socio-economic crisis, which might “increase the poverty rate in Ukraine from 27.2% to 43.6% or even to 50.8%.”
The EU resolution has also echoed the concerns of many Ukrainian anti-corruption activists who accuse the ministry led by Maksym Stepanov of corruption and patronage.
“The EU urges Ukraine to tackle the pervasive cronyism and corruption that continues to exist in its healthcare sector, especially in the Ministry of Health, and to effectively investigate any corrupt activities, in particular attempts to procure medical equipment and COVID-19 vaccines at disproportionately high costs in the midst of the pandemic.”
The EU “acknowledges the good work of the National Health Service of Ukraine in setting up a transparent system tasked with financing the specific treatments provided to patients and calls on the Ministry of Health to support their work.”
On Oct. 27, the government approved a resolution that de facto gave the Ministry of Health control over how medical supplies are purchased.
It negated the Medical Procurements of Ukraine, a state company that was designed for independence, transparency and cost efficiency.
Critics say that this will allow corruption and delays to taint medical procurements.
“The Cabinet of Ministers’ decrees, initiated by the Ministry of Health, forces the state-owned enterprise to agree on details, procurement contracts and terms of reference with the government,” said Olena Scherban, a board member of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in October.
“This delays the process and intervenes and encroaches on the independence of the procurement agency.”
Nord Stream 2
Unlike some of the German top officials, the EU has backed Ukraine in its desire to see Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline construction project stopped.
“The EU expresses concern over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and reiterates its long-term fundamental political, economic, and security risks,” the report reads.
“The pipeline reinforces EU dependency on Russian gas supplies, threatens the EU internal market, is not in line with EU energy policy or its strategic interests and has possible negative consequences for war-torn Ukraine.”
The statement firmly contradicts that of Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has recently tried to justify the building of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline by alleging that Germany owes it to Russia over the atrocities of the Nazis’ invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.
Steinmeier’s comments caused outrage in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic, who suffered from the Soviet and Nazi occupation and now are threatened by a joint Russian-German project, Nord Stream 2.
Energy reforms
The EU has welcomed the completion of the unbundling of Naftogaz, the state oil and gas producer and distributor, and the liberalization and opening up of a competitive gas market for households and the government’s position to comply with the EU environmental and safety policy laws.
However, according to the resolution, the electricity market reform which was launched in 2019 is still not competitive by EU standards, renewables power generation sector is not yet meeting its obligations towards the investors, while the leadership of Naftogaz is constantly under attack, which undermines its independence.
Additionally, the EU “urges Ukraine to effectively fight illegal logging; to put an end to the environmental damage caused by the illegal and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources; urges Ukraine to provide convenient access to environmental information; encourages Ukraine to adopt legislation for the development of sustainable transport, to speed up the implementation of the national emissions reduction plan for major pollutants from large combustion plants; and urges Ukraine to clean up and dispose of highly hazardous agricultural chemicals in a safe and environmentally conscious way, in particular, the obsolete pesticides in Kherson Oblast and other regions of Ukraine.”
Overall, the EU “underlines Ukraine’s role as a strategic transit country for gas and the need for its national gas transmission system to be modernized, as well as the importance of its integration with the EU energy market based on the effective implementation of the Association Agreement.”
