The Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine stresses the need to create an independent and effective judicial body to fight corruption in Ukraine.
On July 17 morning, the EU Delegation met with Members of the Verkhovna Rada Svitlana Zalishchuk, Ivan Krulko, Mustafa Nayyem and Serhiy Leshchenko as well as representatives of civil society to discuss about the outcomes of the EU-Ukraine Summit held last week, the EU Delegation said on its Facebook page.
Ambassador Mingarelli reassured the meeting participants that there has been no change in the EU’s position on the fight against corruption, which should be further accelerated and intensified.
“EU has closely followed the process on the creation of appropriate judicial instruments to adjudicate corruption offenses as prescribed in the Law on the Judiciary adopted last year. We continue to ask for the establishment of an independent, efficient judicial body with the necessary authority and resources to fight corruption. We call for a transparent and independent process in establishing this body and selecting specialized judges,” European Union quoted Mingarelli as saying on Facebook.
A roundtable on the next steps in the establishment of appropriate institutions to bring corruption offenders to justice will continue in early September, the message says.
As it was reported, on July 13, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that the European Union does not insist Ukraine should set up a separate anti-corruption court, but suggests a special anti-corruption chamber created within the Ukrainian judiciary could be enough.
“Fight against corruption is crucial and needs further acceleration and activation. So we were offering to the president this morning, President Tusk and myself, how to deal with this problem when it comes to jurisdictions. Till now the EU was requesting from Ukraine to create a special court in charge of corruption affairs. Now we agreed this morning that if Ukraine would introduce in its judicial system a chamber dedicated to dealing with this that would be sufficient. Not the instruments are important, but the intentions and decisions and the consequences of all this are important,” Juncker said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and EU President Donald Tusk in Kyiv.
On July 14, the EU Delegation to Ukraine said President Juncker was clear in his speech: fight against corruption is crucial and needs further acceleration and activation. He said it is important that an independent, effective judicial body with the necessary powers and resources to fight against corruption is being created.
At the same time, Juncker added the question of the name and structure of this judicial body is a matter of details. The independence, effectiveness and sufficient resources and powers this authority must possess are important, the official said.
