European MPs oppose Zelensky bill to dismiss Constitutional Court

The members of the European Parliament most involved
in Ukraine issues – Michael Gahler and Viola von Cramon – said in a Nov. 4 interview
they oppose President Zelensky’s proposal to remove the authority of all the
judges of the Constitutional Court. “What the president is proposing already in
and of itself is a violation of the Constitution. You can’t just take and
liquidate the Constitutional Court … You can’t cure the anti-constitutional
rulings of the Constitutional Court with the anti-constitutional measures of
the Verkhovna Rada,” Gahler told the Deutsche Welle news agency. In her turn,
von Cramon denied any European MPs supporting Zelensky’s  initiative, as
had been alleged by David Arakhamia, head of The
People’s Servant parliamentary faction. Von Cramon characterized Zelensky’s
bill as “a very doubtful matter.” Gahler is the standing EU rapporteur for
Ukraine, while von Cramon is the deputy head of the EU delegation to the
Ukraine-EU commission.

No new legislation can correct certain consequences of
the ruling of the Constitutional Court, the National Agency on Corruption
Prevention said on Nov. 4 on its website. Specifically, the High
Anti-Corruption Court must close its existing cases on electronic declarations,
which has included the reportedly undeclared amount of UAH 35 mln by a former
Zaporizhia regional administration head. In addition, law enforcement bodies
are halting their investigations of fraudulent declarations between 2017-2019,
leaving thousands of people unpunished. The scandalous Oct. 27 ruling
needs to be reversed in order to allow for other future bills to be able to
renew the anti-corruption system, the agency said. “I sincerely hope that
legislators will be able to find a wise approach and the work of the national
agency will be renewed as soon as possible,” said Oleksandr Novikov, the agency
head.

About 60% of Ukrainians don’t trust the Constitutional
Court after its scandalous ruling, according to a poll conducted between Nov. 2
and 3 by the Rating Sociological Service. Among those familiar with the ruling,
80% don’t trust the court. About 57% of Ukrainians support President Zelensky’s
legislation to remove the authority of the court’s judges. About 55% of
respondents view negatively the prospect of losing the EU visa-free regime as a
consequence of the ruling. The poll was conducted among 2,000 respondents.

Zenon Zawada: It is hard
to contemplate how the scandalous Oct. 27 ruling can be reversed by the very
same court that issued the ruling, unless its judges are replaced. The European
MPs said in their interview that they could see the Constitutional Court judges
being gradually replaced by a selection procedure similarly used for the High
Anti-Corruption Court. But approving such legislation, and setting up the
bureaucracy for such a selection process if it is even approved, would take
many months, if not years.

We are confident the most likely way this crisis will
be resolved by gradually approving the necessary legislation to restore the
nation’s anti-corruption infrastructure. But we also agree with the national
agency’s view that certain damage can’t be undone. That applies not only to
many cases never being investigated or prosecuted, but also the damage done to
the credibility of anti-corruption and judicial bodies (particularly the
Constitutional Court). Many Ukrainians will think twice about submitting honest
e-declarations if they now know the system could be so easily overturned.