The representatives of the Commission took part in the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the European Union/Council of Europe joint Project “Consolidation of Justice Sector Policy Development in Ukraine”, 18 February, 2016
On 18 February 2016 the representatives of the Commission participated in the meeting of the European Union/Council of Europe joint Project “Consolidation of Justice Sector Policy Development in Ukraine,” organized to summarize the Project Activities in 2015 and to present the Action Plan for 2016.
The event was held under the leadership of Mr. Tigran Karapetyan, Head of Eastern Partnership Unit, Human Rights National Implementation Division, Human Rights Policy and Co-operation Department, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law.
Mr. Alessandro Savaris, Head of Operations Council of Europe Office in Ukraine in his welcoming speech assured the representatives of the Recipients that the Project will continue supporting reforms in the justice sector, including the review and improvement of current legislation. Mr. Savaris also noted, that the main condition for the aid is the active involvement of the bodies, which obliged to implement the judicial reform.
In addition, Mr. Alexandru Albu, Head of Operations Section “Good Governance and Democratization”, the EU Delegation to Ukraine also said the words of welcome.
Mr. Konstiantyn Krasovskyi, Chief of the Head Department for Legal Policy of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine said that the reform in the justice sector is the joint work of Council of Europe Projects and Ukrainian institutions and allocated 4 directions: reform of judicial procedure, judicial administration reform, advocacy reform and the reform of legal aid system, prosecution and state executive service reform.
Mr. Krasovskyi also stressed on importance of monitoring the implementation of reforms in the justice sector in Ukraine and the need to harmonize the issue with the National Council of Reforms.
Mr. Sergii Petukhov, Deputy Minister of Justice for European integration, pointed out the priority of conducting judicial reform among reforms in other areas. “It is impossible to implement reforms not having built an independent judiciary, because successful judicial reform is the key to all other reforms that will not be cancelled by the court decision,” - said Mr. Petukhov.
Mrs. Maria Orieshkina, Project Coordinator of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, Department of implementation of human rights at the National level, the Directorate of Human Rights and Rule of Law Council of Europe, presented participants the basic Project activities during September – December 2015, in particular, reminded about 6 workshops held in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsa, Kramatorsk, as well as round tables, conferences and 10 training events, which were attended by over 900 participants.
Mrs. Olena Trapeznikova, Project Manager briefly presented the Project Action Plan for the next 6 months and noted that the Project’s will be focused on providing recommendations to ensure that the reform process of justice field corresponds to the standards of the Council of Europe and on supporting the process of coordination and monitoring of the reforms mentioned.
Furthermore, within the Project it was planned to hold targeted trainings for interested parties in the justice sector and measures to promote public awareness and support to justice reforms.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the High Commercial Court of Ukraine, the High Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases, the High Administrative Court of Ukraine, the High Council of Justice, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, the Committee on Legal Policy and Justice of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Government Agent for the European Court of Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Plenipotentiary on Human Rights of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National School of Judges of Ukraine, the National Academy of Prosecution of Ukraine, the National Academy of Advocacy of Ukraine, the Council of Judges of Ukraine, the Council of Advocates of Ukraine, Center for Political and Legal Reforms, Center for Judicial Studies, the Reanimation Package of Reforms, other NGOs and International Technical Assistance Projects – USAID “FAIR Justice” Project, EU/CoE Programmatic Co-operation Framework in the Eastern Partnership countries “Further Support for the Penitentiary Reform in Ukraine”, the EU Project “Support to Justice Sector Reforms in Ukraine.”
After the meeting the participants of the Supervisory Board attended a consultative meeting on preparation methodology of measuring the progress of reforms in the justice sector in Ukraine and expressed their views on this issue.
References:
The Project “Consolidation of Justice Sector Policy Development in Ukraine” supports Ukraine in implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan, in particular by informing about the relevant standards, established by the Conventions and monitoring bodies of the Council of Europe, as well as by opinions of the Venice Commission and recommendations of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.
The Project is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and is implemented by the Council of Europe.
Project objectives:
- To give the Ukrainian justice sector stakeholders and the EU Project that assists them access to rapid and tailored expertise and recommendations regarding Council of Europe standards so that (a) the conformity of the reform with Council of Europe standards is ensured, and (b) the targets and benchmarks for implementing the Justice Sector Reform Strategy and its Action Plan can be met.
- To accompany the reform by capacity building of stakeholders’ staff in order to prepare them for new working methods.
- To prepare reports on the advancement of the reform and possible delays with analyses of the reasons for such delays at regular intervals.
- To contribute to ensuring access to the public information and debate with civil society on the justice sector reform with a view to achieve broad understanding and support of the reform.
