Kessler declines appointment under Ukraine president’s scheme

Giovanni Kessler, the director-general of the European Anti-Fraud Office, told the eurointegration.com.ua news site on Nov. 9 that he declines to be appointed to the commission to establish the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office under the parliament’s quota. Instead, he will accept the appointment to the commission under the Prosecutor General’s quota, he said. Last week, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc submitted a resolution to nominate Kessler to the commission instead of Mary Butler, a resident legal advisor of the U.S. Justice Department. Poroshenko announced on Nov. 9 that he believes he fulfilled EU requirements regarding the commission. Kessler said no criticisms have been made of Butler’s work so he sees no need to replace her.

The same day as Kessler’s refusal, several leading civic organizations called for Procurator General Viktor Shokin to appoint Kessler instead of Yuriy Sevruk, the first deputy prosecutor whom they identified as directly undermining anti-corruption efforts. “It was Yuriy Sevruk who launched the investigation of Deputy Prosecutor David Sakvarelidze for his attempts to reform prosecution bodies using competitive procedures,” said the statement issued by Transparency International Ukraine, the Center to Counteract Corruption and the Reforms Resuscitation Package, among other groups. The statement referred to the parliament’s resolution as part of “backroom political deals, rather than fulfilling the demands of civic society.” Attempts to appoint Kessler “in ways other than replacing delegates from prosecutor general’s office is unacceptable and will be considered as attempts from the government’s end to interfere in the work of the competitive commission” the statement said.

The European Commission postponed a meeting with Ukraine high-ranking officials scheduled for Nov. 10 to discuss the planned visa-free regime, reported the eurointegration.com.ua news site, citing anonymous diplomatic sources. The postponement gives Ukraine more time to fulfill the legislation necessary for the visa-free regime. The meeting was supposed to determine whether the EU could announce a visa-free regime as of December. A new date has yet to be announced, the report said. In turn, Parliamentary Head Volodymyr Hroisman told reporters that he expects to approve the necessary legislation towards the visa-free regime at today’s session.

Zenon Zawada: It’s positive that European leaders are showing patience in dealing with the stubbornly corrupt members of the Poroshenko administration and are working tightly with civil society groups in Ukraine to achieve the needed reforms. We expect all the necessary legislation and appointments will be approved eventually towards achieving a visa-free regime with the EU, which is yet another make-or-break issue for Poroshenko. It’s worth noting that that might not happen this week, especially considering that only two out of 13 necessary bills have been approved so far.