RPR’s Summary of the Ukraine Week in the European Parliament

17 experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms are taking part in the Ukraine Week in the European Parliament, where Ukrainian and EU lawmakers are discussing how to improve Ukrainian parliamentarism.

Members of the civil platform have taken part in the panel discussion of the key reforms for 2016 with the participation of the European officials, ambassadors of the EU member countries in Brussels, journalists, and representatives of the European think tanks. The RPR wanted to organize not an event of Ukrainians for Ukrainians in the EU capital, but a presentation of the community’s best practices and how our partners assess them.

Key messages of the RPR:

– Demands for electronic declaration shall not slacken. The adopted Law shall be vetoed and redrafted to meet the European demands;
– New institutions (National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine, Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, ‘new’ police) should be supported, as certain officials might try to discredit or impede their work;
– It would be worth setting up a joint mission of the Ukrainian and European investigators to combat money laundering in the EU countries, as it is in the European jurisdictions that Ukrainian oligarchs are laundering corrupt money. Participation of the European is a guarantee that the group members from Ukraine would not be pressurized and would be more capable;
– The judicial reforms should not be limited to boosting independence of judges. Independent corrupt courts is no less a threat than politically dependent corrupt courts. Therefore, constitutional amendments should be considered alongside the implementation laws (on a three-tier structure of courts, on the procedure of assessment and appointment of judges, etc);
– It would be a good idea to establish a ‘hybrid’ court with the participation of Ukrainian judges and foreign jury to consider the cases on grand corruption (jurisdiction of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office), human rights violations, terrorism, crimes against humanity;
– A new law on election with open party list might force even the acting parliament to work effectively, as MPs will be afraid of this system of election which is hard to falsify and corrupt, and will, thus, do their best just to prevent a new election.

During the Ukraine Week in Brussels the RPR representatives had the following meetings:

– meeting with Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, and his team;
– meeting with the European Support for Ukraine Group (function – to agree upon and propose policies regarding Ukraine, especially in the field of reforms implementation);
– meeting with the representatives of the Directorate-General for Internal Policies responsible for the Visa Liberalization Action Plan;
– meeting with the Ukrainian team of the European External Action Service (EU counterpart of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

The Europeans are careful, as usual, saying that they cannot substitute us, that they act as advisors and consultants. At the same time, everyone agrees that it is a great success that Mary Butler took part in the selection of the head of the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, and Giovanni Kessler – in the selection of the head of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine. So, should the Ukrainian party be interested, they are ready to consider delegating European prosecutors to the personnel and qualifications commission of the Prosecutor General’s Office which should tackle appointments and disciplinary sanctions in the ‘new’ prosecutor’s office, –
says Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, RPR advocacy manager, working this week in the European Parliament.

He says that persons who assisted reforms in Romania and the Arab countries clearly know that mere consultations do not work. It is of great value that the European Union endorses the system of enlargement, although its position is often being criticized by not only the Ukrainian politicians, but also discreet Europeans.

As a coalition of representatives of civil society, the RPR won’t have the Ukrainian program in the EU formed without Ukrainians. Unfortunately, not all representatives of authority can ensure that the agenda will be of high quality – at best only one third of the delegation that had arrived to Brussels attended the plenary meetings during the Ukraine Week in the European Parliament.

If we do not want the Europeans to forget about us, then we have not to come here and argue whose prime minister is the best and who hampers anticorruption efforts, but to suggest concrete solutions in priority areas. On the other hand, the Europeans need to understand why independence does not guarantee absence of corruption in Ukraine. But understanding can be reached only if we take action to this end. We will do our best to achieve this goal, –
sums up Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.