Coordination meeting with international projects’ representatives on observation of qualification evaluation of judges was held
The Chairman of the Commission Mr. Sergii Koziakov and the member of the Qualification Chamber of the Commission Mr. Andrii Kozlov briefed international experts on the progress of the qualification evaluation of judges for the compliance with the occupied position during the Coordination meeting with international projects’ representatives on observation of qualification evaluation of judges, which took place on 05 June 2018.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Fabian Loewenberg, Head of Rule of Law Component of the EUAM; Ms. Katrien Witteman, Senior Adviser on Criminal Justice and Judiciary of the EUAM; Mr. Andriy Spivak, Judicial Reform Manager of the EU Delegation to Ukraine; Mr. David Vaughn, Chief of Party of the USAID “New Justice” Program; Mr. Oleksandr Piskun, the USAID Democracy and Governance Project Management Specialist; Ms. Reda Moliene, International Key Expert of the EU “PRAVO-Justice” Project; Ms. Luba Beardsley, Justice and Anti-Corruption Advisor of the Strategic Advisory Group Supporting Ukrainian Reforms; Mr. Oleksandr Vodyannikov, National Legal Advisor of the Office of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.
The Chairman of the HQCJ told that the initial qualification evaluation had been carried out in 2016. Then, for the first time in the Ukrainian history, interviews of judges with Commission’s members had been broadcast on the Internet, and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine had provided the Commission with analytical materials on judges. The Commission’s Chairman stressed that, after this procedure, about one and a half thousand judges had resigned by their own decision.
Speaking about the current situation with the qualification evaluation of judges, the Chairman of the Commission presented some statistics. For today, 999 judges have passed the qualification evaluation procedure, of which 705 judges have confirmed their ability to administer justice; 45 – do not correspond to the occupied position; regarding 111 judges, including 45 those with the negative opinions from PIC, a break was announced, 24 - did not attend interviews, and regarding 30 judges the evaluation was terminated, in particular, due to their dismissal. This means that, in general, about 100 judges have not confirmed the ability to administer justice.
“Is it a lot or not? We say that we do not want to count whether it is a lot or not. The qualification evaluation is not a competitive procedure. This procedure is aimed at ascertaining the compliance of a judge with the minimum level of necessary requirements”, noted the Chairman of the HQCJ.
Mr. Sergii Koziakov also reminded that last year the Commission had completed the Supreme Court competition. “We are monitoring the work of the new Supreme Court, and we see resolute positive changes for six months. And we continue to monitor”, said the Commission’s Chairman.
In addition, the Chairman of the HQCJ informed the international experts on the Commission’s procedures in 2018: the competition to the IP Court, the second competition to the Supreme Court, the completion of the procedure for selecting local court judges, and the transfer of judges without competition in connection with elimination or reorganization of courts.
The event was organized with the support of the European Union Advisory Mission to Ukraine.
