The President has held a meeting of the Judicial Reform Council. The Head of State noted that the implementation of the judicial reform must guarantee the right of every citizen to a fair trial and regain public trust in courts and judicial power.
“Everyone wants fair and stable rules that will be secured by a fair, unbiased and independent judge. The key thing is to achieve public trust in a judge,” the Head of State said.
The President has highlighted the responsibility of judges for the restoration of public sense of justice. “Society is waiting for two main things – peace and justice. Our contribution to the restoration of justice, our responsibility to the public for the restoration of justice is extremely important,” the Head of State said.
That’s why the judicial reform is the top priority in the Strategy of Sustainable Development “Ukraine 2020”. Its purpose is to implement European standards in our state and bring Ukraine to the leading positions in the world. In the future, it will ensure the right of Ukraine to apply for the EU membership, as stated by the President.
The President has reminded that the implementation of the judicial reform had been laid down in the Coalition Agreement.
“Due to the implementation of the Strategy, the judicial system of Ukraine and its adjacent legal institutes will work fruitfully, be accountable to the citizens of Ukraine, be free from any political influence and fully meet the criteria, standards and practices of the European Union,” the President emphasized.
Another important step, according to Petro Poroshenko, was the adoption of the law on ensuring the right to a fair trial. “Today, we can firmly say that the law starts functioning and it has brought our citizens substantially closer to high-quality judicial services,” the Head of State noted.
The President has also reminded that the new standards of judges’ selection were being introduced within the reform. They will be based on professionalism and moral qualities. According to the Head of State, the responsibility of judges had been significantly increased and the list of issues under which they can be brought to disciplinary liability had been extended.
The President expects the same steps in the reform of the system for execution of court decisions and the improvement of procedural tools of the bar. “We must realize that it is only the beginning of a very hard and painstaking work,” Petro Poroshenko said.
Reporting on the first results of the Council’s work, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Oleksiy Filatov informed that the Council had elaborated a series of draft laws on the judicial reform. “Mainly these changes are related to the improvement of the procedure of selection and appointment of judges, requirements, disciplinary liability, guarantees of judicial independence, reboot of bodies responsible for the formation of the judicial corps, especially the Supreme Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges, and bringing the Ukrainian legislation to the European standards,” O. Filatov said. At the same time, he emphasized that profound reforms required not only amendments to certain laws, but also to the Constitution.
The Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration noted that the formation of the Supreme Council of Justice was about to finish. “We expect the Supreme Council of Justice to be formed in June,” he said.