The foreign delegation was
represented by James Hamilton, Substitute Member of the Venice Commission, Stephan
Gass, expert of the Council of Europe, Schnutz Durr, Head of
Constitutional Justice Division in the Venice Commission, Oscar Alarcón, Adviser of the Joint Programme
between the European Union and the Council of Europe on "Transparency and
Efficiency of the Judicial System in Ukraine", Daimar Liiv and Carsten
Mahnke, resident experts of the Council of Europe and
the EU.
The participants of the meeting discussed the Law "On Judicial System and the Status of Judges" adopted on July 7, 2010, and preliminary conclusions of the European experts drafted for the plenary session of the Venice Commission on October 16-17.
The European experts appreciated resumption of the judicial reform in Ukraine. They are looking forward to further cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Justice in the topical legislative issues in this sector.
Serhii Kivalov, Chairman of the Committee on Justice, supported the idea of further collaboration with the European institutions to enhance Ukrainian legislation on judicial system and the status of judges. Thus, he would appreciate the conclusions of the Venice Commission regarding the Law "On Judicial System and the Status of Judges." He assured that the conclusions would be thoroughly studied, the law being amended if necessary.
The Parties also deem necessary to extend cooperation between the Ukrainian law-makers and the Venice Commission and the European Union experts concerning reform of the criminal procedural legislation, the laws on prosecution and other issues related to the constitutional and state development.