The Verkhovna Rada has adopted in general a draft law that concerns the improvement of declarations of integrity of judges and declarations of family ties of judges. This was reported by the press service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. 242 MPs voted for the document.
The parliament stated that the draft law is one of the EU requirements, and is also aimed at implementing the recommendations of the European Commission and Ukraine’s international obligations within the framework of the process of accession to the European Union.
The Verkhovna Rada also reported that the document establishes the procedure for submitting a single joint declaration, which will concern the integrity of judges and their family ties.
At the same time, the DeJure Foundation analytical center believes that the draft law may create corruption risks for judges. According to the organization, candidates for judicial positions will now be able to submit property declarations for only one year, and not for the entire period of their lives. In addition, the bill reduces the period for verifying such declarations to six months.
A judge’s corruption offenses will only be verified after a court verdict. The document also removes issues related to the legislation on lustration and decisions regarding participants in the Revolution of Dignity of 2013–2014. In addition, the bill prohibits verifying information received from anonymous applicants regarding a judge or a candidate for the position of judge.
