The Verkhovna Rada approved the first reading of a controversial judicial reform bill on May 19.
The bill, which was submitted by President Volodymyr Zelensky in February, seeks to replace tainted members of the High Council of Justice, the judiciary’s main governing body.
Anti-corruption activists and legal experts have lambasted the bill. They say that the legislation fails to reform the discredited council, nullifies foreign experts’ role in judicial reform and violates Ukraine’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The European Commission for Democracy through Law, or Venice Commission, has also criticized the bill and called for a bigger role for foreign experts.
Andriy Kostin, head of the Verkhovna Rada’s legal policy committee, claimed the Venice Commission’s recommendations would be taken into account before the second reading. The President’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Ethics council
To reform the High Council of Justice, Zelensky’s bill would create the Ethics Council, made up of three judges chosen by the separate Council of Judges and three foreign experts chosen by international organizations.
If the Ethics Council rules that a High Council of Justice member violated ethics and integrity standards, that member would be suspended immediately. The bodies that appoint High Council of Justice members would then be able to fire the suspended member.
Under the bill, the Ethics Council’s decisions would require the agreement of all three foreign experts and at least one of the three Ukrainian judges.
Requiring at least one Ukrainian judge’s vote would make it effectively impossible to fire a High Council of Justice member who broke the rules, according to legal think tank DEJURE and the anti-graft watchdogs Anti-Corruption Action Center and AutoMaidan.
The Venice Commission proposed changing the voting procedure to require the votes of at least four members, including two foreign experts, to adopt the Ethics Council’s decisions. When the vote is split three to three, the foreign experts’ opinion should prevail, the Venice Commission argued.
Discredited council
The High Council of Justice has been involved in numerous corruption scandals and is known for appointing judges linked to illegal schemes.
In September, the council unanimously refused to suspend notorious judge Pavlo Vovk, who is involved in Ukraine’s most high-profile judicial corruption case.
In wiretapped conversations released by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Vovk mentioned the involvement of Andrii Ovsiienko, head of the High Council of Justice, along with other council members in his alleged corruption schemes. Council members did not respond to requests for comment.
According to Ukraine’s memorandum with the 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 for this condition has been missed.
In February, the IMF suspended talks with Ukraine on a $700 million tranche due to its failure to deliver on several reforms, including the judicial one.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, a top aide to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, even hurled expletives at the IMF on Facebook, claiming that the fund had “f*cked up.” He said that disagreements with the IMF about the High Council of Justice prevented the sides from reaching an agreement.
