Final Steering Committee Meeting of the EU/CoE Joint Project “Consolidation of Justice Sector Policy Development in Ukraine” took place in Kyiv, where the achieved results of the project for the period 2015-1016 were presented, possible follow-up needs and measures to ensure the sustainability of achieved results were discussed.
Among main achievements of the project the following were mentioned:
- adopted constitutional amendments in the part of judiciary are in line with CoE standards;
- the authority of the HCJ are envisaged by the draft Law on High Council of Justice;
- procedures foreseen by the draft Law "On Constitutional Court" is an important step in the process of implementation of the European standards;
- development of the tool on progress review of the justice sector reform – Methodology.
Among other achievements were underlined: improved skills and knowledge of advocates, judges, staff of the MoJ, Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada and strengthened their capacity to carry out the reforms; fostered the active participation of relevant civil society organisations in the justice sector reform process and improved the cooperation with state institutions.
The participants expressed their gratitude to the project and stressed the need to further support of the Ukrainian side by the Council of Europe and the European Union in the process of implementation of the reform of the justice sector.
Representatives of the Council of Europe, European Union Delegation to Ukraine, Presidential Administration of Ukraine, judiciary, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, Ombudsman Office in Ukraine, civil societies, other partners of the project as well as international initiatives, participated in the event.