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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Its adoption could literally cost Ukraine 7 billion hryvnias.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy at its meeting on 30 September rejected the government draft law amending the legislation “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” to improve competitive procedures for filling the positions of member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and member of the High Council of Justice, and recommended that deputies support an initiative from a group of deputies who proposed removing the decisive influence of international experts.
As Vitalii Shabunin, chairman of the board of the Anti-Corruption Center, pointed out, the allocation of 7 billion hryvnias in aid from the European Union to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility depends on the adoption of this draft law, and those funds will be disbursed only if the law meets EU requirements.
“The government draft (No. 16018-1) was not perfect, but it received feedback from the Venice Commission—by taking that into account the documents could have been calmly finalized. Instead, Zelensky’s deputies on the Rada committee rejected the government draft and supported the deputies’ draft (No. 16018), which directly contradicts the requirements for receiving EU funds. That means Ukraine most likely will not receive almost 7 billion hryvnias,” he said.
Recently, the Venice Commission and the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe recommended that Ukraine substantially revise the government draft law No. 16018-1. They supported continued participation of international experts in the competitions but concluded that the proposed changes in the draft weaken their role.
Previously, the selection commission that chose members of the HQCJ with the participation of international experts included three judges or retired judges and three international experts. The latter’s vote was decisive. That commission completed its work as early as 1 June 2025.
The new selection commission was to be formed by Ukrainian bodies—the Council of Judges, the Council of Prosecutors, the Bar Council, and the National Academy of Legal Sciences. Last year the High Council of Justice even announced the start of the corresponding competition, and the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, Anastasiia Radina, registered draft law No. 13382, which provided for continued participation of international experts in the competition. However, the committee has still not even considered it.
In December 2025 the European Union included the continuation of international experts’ participation in the HQCJ selection commission among ten priority reforms for Ukraine.
The adoption of this draft law is also important because in June 2027 the powers of almost the entire current composition of the HQCJ, which selects candidates for judicial positions, will expire.
In its opinion on the government draft, registered in early September this year, the Venice Commission emphasized that the participation of international experts should continue not until a predetermined date but until Ukraine creates conditions in which national institutions can independently ensure a proper competition. They also proposed changing some provisions:
not to require that among the candidates proposed by international partners for the selection commission there must necessarily be a citizen of Ukraine;
to enshrine uniform voting rules when evaluating candidates—the commission proposes to require at least four votes, two of which must belong to international experts;
to remove the possibility of replacing international experts with representatives of Ukrainian bodies;
not to limit the work of the selection commission to two years—the commission should operate until it completes the formation of the new composition of the HQCJ. At the same time, the selection of new members should begin at least six months before the current composition’s powers expire, and current members should continue to work until successors are appointed;
to give the selection commission the ability to conduct its own analysis to vet candidates.
At the same time, as the Anti-Corruption Center MEZHA points out, the deputies’ draft law No. 16018 supported by the committee weakens the role of international experts in selecting HQCJ members even more than the government draft:
the vote of international experts loses weight—if votes are distributed 3 to 3, the candidate is eliminated from the competition. At the same time, international experts will lose the decisive vote already at the integrity assessment stage;
the High Council of Justice gains control over admitting candidates to the competition—no separate independent secretariat was provided for the Selection Commission;
the second composition of the Selection Commission with international experts receives authority for only two years from the date of appointment, and the next composition will be formed already under general rules;
under certain conditions the seats of the international quota may be transferred to the Council of Prosecutors, the Bar Council, and the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine.
As Shabunin writes, such a draft law was chosen in order to fill one of the main judicial bodies with their people.
“You can predict the quality of these people by looking at Mudra, Halushchenko, Kravchenko and other Mindichs,” he added.
2025 the year brought certain shifts in the field of justice to Ukraine: disciplinary inspectors of the HCJ started working, competitions for courts took place, the Constitutional Court was unblocked. However, behind the facade of formal progress remains a key problem—the lack of a coherent strategy and accountability for its implementation. Why judicial reform moves chaotically, who is responsible for it, and why without ethics and dignity the rule of law remains a declaration are analyzed in the article “The Rule of Law: Without Strategy, Ethics, and Dignity” by Karina Aslanyan, head of the Rule of Law direction at the Legislative Initiatives Laboratory.
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