Venice Commission notes slowdown in Ukraine’s judiciary reform

The European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) notes the slowdown in the constitutional reform of the judiciary in Ukraine.

This is stated by one of the Ukraine’s representatives in the Venice Commission Volodymyr Pylypenko, Ukrainian News agency reports.

The 106th plenary session of the European Commission for Democracy through Law takes place today and tomorrow. The meeting participants have heard the report on Ukraine’s implementation of recent findings of the Commission on the constitutional reform, Pylypenko says.

“There is an objective remark on a slight slowdown in the constitutional reform of the judiciary. Although the amendments relating to judiciary were adopted by a majority at the previous session and they could be finally approved at the current session of the Verkhovna Rada, their content has caused much controversy in the Ukrainian society,” Pylypenko notes.

He adds that the Venice Commission also drew attention to the changes in the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada, which allowed MPs to delay the introduction of the amendments to the Constitution.

“The fact that the Parliament adopted the changes in the regulations and allowed itself to adopt such changes at one of the next sessions is now considered by the Constitutional Court,” the representative of Ukraine in the Commission says.

“If these changes are recognized unconstitutional, we will have to re-launch the process of introduction of the constitutional amendments related to judiciary,” he adds.

Pylypenko notes that Ukraine remains in the spotlight of the Venice Commission.

As a reminder, President Petro Poroshenko submitted draft constitutional amendments related to judiciary to the Parliament on 25 November 2015. The President, in particular, suggested postponing the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for three years.