At the conference “Ukraine's Accession to the EU: Shaping a Transformational Agenda” held on February 7, 2025 in Kyiv, Acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice Dmytro Lukianov emphasized that the Government of Ukraine's broad involvement of judicial authorities in the negotiation process on Ukraine's accession to the European Union demonstrates the awareness of the need to take into account the position of judges and judicial officers regarding the reform of the judiciary. This is evidence that Ukraine's European integration is based on the principles of cooperation, transparency and adherence to democratic standards.
Dmytro Lukianov noted that it took about six months to prepare for bilateral meetings with the European Commission in Brussels under the negotiating chapter 23 “Judiciary and Fundamental Rights” and more than five months to develop the draft Rule of Law Roadmap.
The speaker said that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, the High Anti-Corruption Court, the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the National School of Judges of Ukraine, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, and other judicial authorities were also involved in preparing the negotiations with the European Commission and the draft Roadmap. This is an important step towards ensuring the inclusiveness of the reforms, strengthening the rule of law and guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary in line with European standards.
Dmytro Lukianov noted that based on the results of the screening, the European Commission prepared a report on the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law for each negotiation cluster, in which the European Commission noted the progress and high level of preparation of Ukraine in implementing reforms, but emphasized the need to continue efforts to achieve full compliance with the EU membership criteria. In particular, it is important to ensure the independence, quality and efficiency of Ukraine's judicial system.
The speaker noted that the draft Rule of Law Roadmap, a document in which Ukraine will identify key reforms in the judiciary and set deadlines for their implementation, is almost complete. It is important not only to draft this document, but also to take into account the possibility of implementing the tasks set out in it, as this will be the basis for monitoring Ukraine's progress by the European Commission.
The speaker highlighted two problems that are of the greatest concern to judges:
1) unsatisfactory financing of the judicial system, in particular due to non-compliance with the requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine and the procedures of the Budget Code for determining the costs of maintaining courts, taking into account the proposals of the High Council of Justice. This leads to low salaries for court staff and a one-third decrease in judges' income due to the artificial determination of a separate subsistence minimum for the basic salary of a judge starting in 2021;
2) Excessive level of judicial workload caused by a significant staff shortage in the courts of first instance and appellate courts, which leads to an uneven workload of up to 10-20 times. The ways to solve this problem should be to optimize the court network, launch an effective mechanism for selecting judges, overcome the staffing crisis, and create a modern electronic court system that will ensure transparency and accessibility of justice for citizens and convenience for judges.
Dmytro Lukianov emphasized that all reforms and positive changes in the judicial system could be jeopardized if the High Council of Justice and the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine are suspended due to the loss of quorum. Such a scenario would have catastrophic consequences for the implementation of all measures to improve the judicial system, overcome the personnel crisis and successfully integrate Ukraine into the EU.
That is why it is important to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2019-2023, when the HCJ and HQCJ were incompetent for a long time, and to establish an effective mechanism at the legislative level to ensure institutional continuity of these bodies in accordance with European standards.
The conference was attended by: Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra, Ambassador of Lithuania to Ukraine Inga Stanytė-Toločkienė, Deputy Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine Maximilian Rush, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Remi Duflot, members of the Verkhovna Rada, representatives of other government agencies and civil society.