The European Commission has published a report on Ukraine’s progress towards EU integration, as well as a detailed 100-page document outlining key tasks for Ukraine. One of the important conditions for starting negotiations with the EU is the successful implementation of judicial reform.
Many of these tasks have already been voiced in previous recommendations of the European Commission, in the Memorandum with the IMF and other documents, but there are also new requirements.
The report states that ‘Ukraine has a certain level of preparedness in the areas of judicial reform, the fight against corruption and the observance of fundamental rights and has made some progress’. The Commission noted that last year’s recommendations were partially implemented and remain relevant.
For 2025, the European Commission has identified the following key tasks for Ukraine
- continue filling judicial vacancies on the basis of updated legislation;
- establish a new court to hear administrative cases, including cases involving state bodies, with transparent and independent selection of judges (this refers to the High Court for Public Law Disputes, which was described in detail by Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra)
- continue the assessment and qualification check of judges with the involvement of the PIC;
- to start considering disciplinary cases with the involvement of the Service of Disciplinary Inspectors, focusing on the HCJ’s priority criteria;
- adopt legislation to improve the declaration of judges’ integrity and verification of such declarations;
- to adopt a law on the enforcement of court decisions in the area of monetary and non-monetary obligations and to enhance the digitalisation of enforcement proceedings;
- create a system for collecting data on the enforcement of court decisions;
- start implementing the roadmap for IT modernisation in the judiciary based on the audit findings;
- continue filling vacancies in the Constitutional Court;
- Improve legislation on criminal cases, in particular on high-level corruption, including by reviewing the timeframe for pre-trial investigation and removing automatic mechanisms for closing cases in the Criminal Procedure Code;
- take measures to minimise corruption risks in the Supreme Court.
It is also recommended that the High Council of Justice approve unified criteria for assessing the integrity of judges and strengthen the institutional capacity of the HCJ, HQCJ and PIC due to the heavy workload of these bodies.
The section on fighting corruption states that Ukraine should:
- increase the number of judges and administrative staff in the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC);
- complete the deployment of an electronic case management system for anti-corruption agencies and the HACC;
- provide the HACC with permanent premises for stable operation.
