Poroshenko says he’s ready to support anti-corruption court creation
6 October 2017
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on Oct.
4 that he is ready to submit legislation to parliament to create an independent
Anti-Corruption Court, which he had previously spoken out against. He had
advocated creating anti-corruption chambers within the existing court, which he
said he still supports as a parallel structure within Ukraine’s Supreme Court
to be represented locally. “I think that in the nearest future a specialized
anti-corruption chamber in the Supreme Court can be created, which will have
cassation in all anti-corruption matters,” he said, as reported by
Interfax-Ukraine.
The president’s new position, revealed in an address
to college students, was likely motivated by endorsements for the independent
court reached by experts with the Venice Commission and the Group of States
Against Corruption, both bodies within the Council of Europe that form the
basis for EU policy, as reported by the eurointegration.com.ua news site.
Several bills have been ireached.
Zenon Zawada: Approving
legislation for the court’s creation is among the IMF’s key demands for issuing
its next loan tranche to Ukraine, which is expected by the year end. The
government seems serious about gaining the loan tranche, given its approval of
the pension reform package this week, which was the key requirement. So we
expect the legislation creating the court to be approved in the coming weeks.
his chamber proposal, the president seems to be playing a political game in
which he could retain control over anti-corruption cases. There are many ways
this could play out, including the independent court legislation being approved
but never signed by the president or implemented. So while the independent
court’s creation remains far from certain, at least we can tell that the
Poroshenko administration is actively working towards the IMF loan tranche.
