Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Smyrnov held a meeting with the heads and representatives of the embassies of the Group of Seven (G7) and the EU states in Ukraine, which was devoted to the assessment of the current state and further steps in the judicial reform in Ukraine.
Andriy Smyrnov noted that he had received recommendations from international partners on the next steps in the judicial reform, taking into account the reboot of the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges.
"I am extremely grateful for these proposals. I am especially pleased to see the unity of our views on the improvement of the work of the Supreme Court and the reform of the State Judicial Administration," he emphasized.
Andriy Smyrnov commended the completion on Thursday of the process of electing members of the HCJ by the Congress of Judges of Ukraine according to their quota. At the same time, he reminded that the service of disciplinary inspectors should be formed next.
"And here we need to think how to move in this direction. Because in fact we have to start everything from scratch, there is not much time, and we need to either amend the legislation to speed up or optimize the procedures for selecting disciplinary inspectors, or offer another way," he said.
Speaking of the recommendations on the introduction of transparent competitive selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, strengthening of disciplinary procedures and ethical requirements for the CCU judges, the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office emphasized that many issues were regulated in the draft law on constitutional procedure, which has not yet been adopted by the Verkhovna Rada.
Ambassador of Japan to Ukraine Kuninori Matsuda, who chairs the G7 Ambassadors Group since the beginning of 2023, stressed the importance of judicial reform as a priority for the diplomatic representatives of the G7 countries and for the Ukrainian authorities.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink noted that judicial reform, which requires a lot of efforts, is an important guarantee of investment security. She supported the position of the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office that the reform should not be about moving people from positions, but about creating strong and effective institutions.
The G7 Ambassadors commended the decision of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine to elect all eight members of the HCJ according to their quota and expressed hope for further progress in judicial reform.