Deputy Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) Mykola Korneliuk, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) Semen Kryvonos, Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Oleksandr Klymenko and Head of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) Vira Mykhailenko met in Kyiv with German Minister of State for Europe Anna Lührmann and Polish Minister for European Affairs Adam Šlapka. France was represented by the French Ambassador to Ukraine, Gaël Veyssière.
Before the official start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, the ministers arrived in Kyiv for the second meeting in the Weimar Triangle + Ukraine format. One of the goals of the visit was to take a closer look at the reforms that Ukraine has implemented, particularly over the past two years since becoming an EU candidate country. At an extended meeting at the NACP, they discussed Ukraine's main achievements in preventing and combating corruption.
The Deputy Head of the NACP shared key achievements, including progress in the implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program (SACP) until 2025 and the work of the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal, which as of May 2024 has more than a thousand organizations connected to it, as well as improvements in the declaration process and verification of declarations. "Joining of the first thousand organizations to the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal, optimization of declaration, automated and full verifications, implementation of almost 300 SACP activities, which is 24.5% of the planned ones as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, are all evidence of constant work on strengthening the anti-corruption infrastructure and implementing key anti-corruption initiatives," said Mykola Korneliuk.
The heads of the NABU and the SAPO spoke about the most high-profile investigations of the agencies and outlined additional steps to be taken by the state to build institutional independence of the anti-corruption agencies and strengthen their capacity. In particular, they drew attention to changes to the legislation necessary for the effective fulfillment of the tasks assigned to the anti-corruption jurisdiction bodies. This primarily concerns the abolition of the so-called "Lozovyi's Rules", granting the Head of the SAPO the authority to initiate proceedings against MPs of Ukraine, etc.
HACC Head Vira Mykhailenko spoke about this year's selection of judges and the administration of justice by the HACC. "The HACC is facing new challenges related to the specifics of the cases we are considering. The court needs to strengthen its institutional capacity, in particular, to increase the number of HACC judges and the HACC Appeals Chamber, for which the powers of the Public Council of International Experts must be extended to ensure transparent selection, and the issue of providing the HACC with proper premises is particularly acute," emphasized Vira Mykhailenko.
The effectiveness of the work of anti-corruption agencies and the High Anti-Corruption Court, as well as the presentation of their achievements, contributes to advocating Ukraine's European integration course.
The Ministers for European Affairs arrived in Ukraine on June 19 at the invitation of Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.
