Venice Commission supports appointment of new judges through competition

Within reorganization of the courts, the judges may either participate in the competition for new positions or resign.

Roman Kuybida, the Deputy Head of the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, the expert on judicial reform at the “Reanimation Package of Reforms”, who participates in the Commission’s meeting, said this to the Human Rights Information Center.

“The Venice Commission has recognized the possibility to appoint new judges within the reorganization of courts. The current judges may either participate in the competition or resign,” the expert said.

This was confirmed by Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko. He posted on his Facebook page that the Venice Commission had endorsed the recommendations on judicial reform.

As a reminder, now there are two options for the constitutional amendments concerning judiciary. The first version was developed by the Constitutional Commission while the second was elaborated by the experts of the “Reanimation Package of Reforms.” The Constitutional Commission suggests re-qualifying of judges while the “Reanimation Package of Reforms” (RPR) experts advocate selecting new judges through open competition. 

Roman Kuybida noted that the current judges, in particular, the leadership of the Supreme Court, supported the option for re-qualification because the decision might be appealed against later.