Representatives of the Higher Qualification Commission of Ukraine met with the Vice-President of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice Georg Stawa in the Committee on the Rule of Law and Justice
18 March 2014, 09:55
In the course of the meeting, attention was focused on the issues of regaining trust into the court system of Ukraine.
The Committee Chair Serhii Kivalov informed the colleagues that the Committee on the Rule of Law and Justice has scrutinized three alternative draft laws “On restoration of trust into the court system of Ukraine” and took the decision to recommend the Verkhovna Rada, following the results of consideration in the first reading, adopt as a basis the bill referred by the Cabinet of Ministers. Apart from this, three more alternative bills were recently registered in the Parliament and the Committee plans to primarily consider them.
According to S.Kivalov, the bills aim at establishing the rule of law and justice in the Ukrainian society and at regaining trust into the court system.
Attention was focused on the necessity of Constitutional reform. It was stressed that in order to further reform the court system, it is necessary to amend the Main Law.
The Committee Chair underlined that the Venice Commission, during a nearly two decades of cooperation with Ukraine, has repeatedly addressed the theme of reforming the court system, which is extremely important for a domestic law-maker.
Vice-President of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice Georg Stawa expressed his own opinion on the abovementioned bills and spoke about European standards and practices related to this topic.
He stressed that “it should be born in mind that premature dismissal of judges, before ending of the term they were elected (appointed) for, can be possible only in case judges can not fulfill their obligations, and only as a result of criminal or disciplinary proceeding during which it was complied with provisions of “fair treatment by an independent tribunal”. It can not be just a result of an arbitrary decision of any specially formed body, adopted without complying with the abovementioned requirements”.
According to him, judicial authorities are one of those pillars the statehood relies on. “If it is ruined by rush measures, you can automatically lose stability in the society”, said Georg Stawa.