The Supreme Council of Justice (SCJ) supported the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "On approval of the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025" with comments and suggestions. 14 SCJ members voted for this decision at the first meeting in the new authorized composition, 1 against.
"The sphere of justice is indicated as the first priority sector for reform in the Anti-Сorruption Strategy until 2025. This is extremely important for society, in particular in the context of the fulfillment of Ukraine's obligations for Ukraine's acquisition of EU membership", — said Andrii Vyshnevskyi, Deputy Head of the NACP.He reminded that for the first time in the history of Ukraine, this document does not only concern anti-corruption infrastructure, but also seven priority sectors of public life and state policy. The Deputy Head of the NACP stressed that the Ukraine-EU summit will be held in Kyiv on February 3, after which there will be an assessment of how Ukraine has fulfilled the 7 requirements for the start of EU membership negotiations. Therefore, the question of when the State Anti-Corruption Program will be approved and how it will be implemented is and will be the focus of attention of international partners. According to Andrii Vishnevskyi, consideration of the draft of the State Anti-Corruption Program at the first meeting of the reloaded Supreme Council of Justice is a signal to society that the issue of preventing corruption and public integrity is a priority for it. It is the updated SCJ that should set the tone for state policy in the field of justice.
"For the NACP as a policy-making body in the field of corruption prevention, three issues are fundamentally important: uniform criteria of integrity, which would be applied by all bodies during the selection procedures of judges and which currently do not exist; simplifying the procedure for evaluating judges, which should become more transparent and objective. The third task is to improve the procedure for appeals against decisions on bringing judges to disciplinary responsibility, in particular, the abolition of the impossibility of appealing in the appellate procedure without the consent of the relevant chamber", — said Andrii Vyshnevskyi. "In the budget for 2023, with the personal support of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, as an exception in the context of the budget deficit, a separate budget program dedicated to the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy was opened. This demonstrates the priority of this direction for the Government of Ukraine, even under such difficult conditions", — noted Andrii Vyshnevskyi.According to the Deputy Head of the NACP, the Agency will process all comments received from the SCJ and is ready to take into account as much as possible all proposals that will contribute to the establishment of the integrity of the judiciary.
It is the updated Supreme Council of Justice that should set the tone for state policy in the field of justice, - Andrii Vishnevskyi
