The Anti-Corruption Committee saw corruption risks in the draft law on the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy recognized draft law No. 14149 on amendments to the procedure for competitive selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as containing corruption risks. The committee adopted the relevant decision on May 12 during a meeting in the format of a video conference.

The document provides for amendments to the legislation on improving the competitive selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. At the same time, certain provisions of the draft law have caused comments from both members of the committee and international experts.

The status of the Advisory Group of Experts has caused discussions

One of the key topics of discussion was the change in the status of the Advisory Group of Experts, which conducts a preliminary assessment of candidates to the Constitutional Court for compliance with the criteria of integrity and professional competence.

The draft law proposes to define the DGE as an “auxiliary body of appointing entities”. The authors of the document believe that this will allow for a clearer regulation of the group’s interaction with the parliament, the president and other entities forming the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

However, the members of the Anti-Corruption Committee, referring to the conclusions of the Venice Commission, emphasized that such a status may call into question the independence of the DGE.

The committee noted that the auxiliary body is actually subordinate to the entity it assists. Therefore, the DGE will not be able to fully fulfill the role of an independent filter for candidates for the positions of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

Transfer of candidates’ materials – another risk

The committee paid special attention to the norm that obliges the DGE to transfer to the appointing entities not only its conclusions, but also copies of all documents and materials collected regarding the candidates.

The conclusions of the Venice Commission note that such a requirement may violate the confidentiality of the evaluation procedure.

According to the members of the committee, access to the full set of documents creates the risk of manipulation and attempts to re-politically evaluate candidates who have already passed the professional selection.

Discretion when announcing a new competition

Another remark concerned the procedure for announcing a repeated competition in the event of a lack of recommended candidates.

The draft law establishes a different approach depending on the number of vacancies. If there is only one vacant position, the parliamentary committee is obliged to announce a new competition. If the selection is carried out for several positions at once, the committee can only “do so” within 30 days.

The Anti-Corruption Committee emphasized that such discretion creates a potential corruption risk, since the decision may not be made on the basis of clear legal criteria, but depending on political expediency.

The issue of access to personal data

The draft law also proposes to entrust the organizational and technical support of the DHE activities to the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. This concerns, in particular, document management and storage of candidates’ personal data.

However, the committee noted that such a model could create a conflict of interest, as the body for which judges are selected would actually gain access to the internal work of the Advisory Group of Experts.

According to committee members, this increases the risks of information leakage and possible external influence on the competitive selection procedure.