Law on Anti-Corruption Court Approved: Compromise Version

UKRAINE - In Brief 07 Jun 2018 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Parliament approved law on anti-corruption court (ACC) with 315 votes. Parliamentary commission today agreed upon a compromise role for international experts. Anti-corruption activists provisionally positively evaluated this version of legislation. According to Anti-Corruption Action Center, decisions on candidates of anti-corruption judges should be jointly approved by High Qualifications Commission of Judges (HQCJ) and Public Council of International Experts (PCIE). A candidate can be banned by joint decision of HQCJ (9 votes out of 16 members) and PCIE (3 votes out of 6 members). Details on overcoming negative decision of PCIE are not available. Important Anti-Corruption Action Center reports that this law just describes mechanism of ACC functioning but for actual creation of ACC extra legislative acts are needed. So, we have a piece of legislation which is not exactly what the IMF demanded. Local activists reflect positively on that move but very likely they are simply scared about consequences of ‘no IMF’ scenario. Every person commenting on this event in social media adds that we should wait for the IMF feedback. Our view on the IMF reaction to such maneuver remains unchanged. The Fund wants to see clear guarantees that anti-corruption court will be clean and reliable institution. Compromised version puts decision-making process on judges into grey area. From what was publicly discussed PCIE will not have clear veto right on appointment of judges. Anyway we will need to wait for the final version of the law released and evaluated by the IMF.