On November 27 and 28, 2023, a Roundtable “Discussion of Recommendations of Council of Europe Experts on the Functioning of Judicial (Self)Governing Bodies in Ukraine” was held in Warsaw with the participation of the Chairman of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine Roman Ihnatov and the Deputy Chairman of the Commission Ruslan Sydorovych, organized by the Council of Europe Division of Cooperation Programmes within the Project “Support to the functioning of justice in the war and post-war context in Ukraine”.
The Roundtable participants gathered to review the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s international experts on the status of the three main judicial governance and self-government bodies in Ukraine: High Council of Justice, High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and Council of Judges of Ukraine. They discussed their functions, potential challenges and ways to overcome problems. Special attention was given to the system of disciplinary proceedings and liability of judges in Ukraine.
In particular, Nina Betetto, an international consultant of the Council of Europe, a judge of the Supreme Court of Slovenia, former President of the Consultative Council of European Judges, presented recommendations on optimising the procedures for selecting judges to the courts of first instance and appeal, followed by a discussion on the implementation of the recommendations in Ukrainian legislation.
The event was also attended by the Chairman of the High Council of Justice Hryhorii Usyk, HCJ member Mykola Moroz, the Head of the Council of Judges of Ukraine Bohdan Monich, member of the CJU Andrii Potapenko, the President of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court Larysa Rohach and other representatives of the Supreme Court, members of Parliament – the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy Denys Maslov, members of the Committee Pavlo Pavlish, Maksym Dyrdin, Mykola Stefanchuk and Roman Babii.
The Council of Europe was represented by international experts: Full Professor of law at the Complutense University in Madrid Lorena Bachmaier Winter, a judge of the Supreme Court of Slovenia Nina Betetto, former President of the Consultative Council of European Judges, former President of the District Court of Floridsdorf (Vienna) Gerhard Reissner, representatives of the Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal cooperation Standards (DG I) – Deputy Head of Co-operation Programmes Division Lilit Daneghian, Project Co-ordinator Andriy Kavakin, Manager of the Project “Support to the functioning of justice in the war and post-war context in Ukraine” Iryna Kushnir, Project Assistant Alisa Tkachova.
Finally, the Council of Europe Experts and Ukrainian delegates summarized the results of the discussion on the harmonisation of national legislation with European standards.
