Saakashvili announces plans for customs and judiciary overhaul

Mikheil Saakashvili, the head of the National Reforms
Council, announced at a June 30 press briefing his plans to overhaul Ukraine’s
customs service and judiciary. For customs, specific reforms include enabling
trucks to enter Ukraine in 15 minutes in an “open customs” process, requiring
of them two documents (a transport certificate and invoice) rather than 26
currently, he said. Meanwhile, import duties will be assessed based on vehicle
characteristics such as volume and year, rather than their estimated value.
Individuals will be able to import vehicles on their own by completing a
customs declaration, no longer requiring customs brokers to weed through the
bureaucracy, he said. The customs process will be increasingly automated, duty
rates will be unified, trading contraband will be punished with imprisonment,
and customs agents will have higher salaries, he said.

A “fundamental concept of revolutionary judiciary
reform” has been personally requested by President Zelensky, who is “very
radically motivated,” Saakashvili told the press briefing. Ukraine’s judiciary
is the “main enemy” of Ukraine’s economic progress, he added. However,
Saakashvili has mentioned few specific proposals beyond “maximally simplifying
the system” and “uprooting corruption or at least creating instruments of
monitoring corruption,” he said in a July 3 Facebook post in response to
criticism of his statements from the Council of Judges of Ukraine issued that
day.

Saakashvili’s proposals raise concern about their
“radicalness and irrevocability,” the Council of Judges statement said. Such
statements and uncontrolled procedures has led to a “catastrophic lack of
personnel” in the judiciary. Saakashvili’s authority, as head of the National
Reforms Council, “doesn’t include actions aimed at undermining the
constitutional foundations of the separation of power between the legislative,
executive and judicial, as well as the neglect of the principles of
independence of court and judges,” the statement said.

Zenon Zawada: With his
June 30 press briefing, Saakashvili targeted for reforms two institutions that
are probably the most damaging to Ukraine’s economy owing to their corruption.
Customs is notoriously difficult to deal with, having created enormous lines at
border crossings for as long as can be remembered. Saakashvili’s customs
proposals have enormous potential for positive change if they’re ever
implemented.

On the other hand, Saakashvili barely mentioned any
specific judiciary reforms, and yet he’s already drawn fierce warnings from
Ukraine’s leading judges organization. Fulfilling this task will be more
difficult for a variety of reasons that include inertia, the high stakes
involved and the resistance of corrupt elites, both at the local and national
levels.

In our view, no judicial reform will be fast and
effective without the close involvement of Western judges, either serving in
Ukraine’s judiciary in some capacity or providing close oversight of court
procedures and rulings. Otherwise, the same corrupt norms and practices will
merely be transferred from one generation of judges to the next, which has been
demonstrated in 28 years of Ukrainian statehood.

Saakashvili seems to be orchestrating his political
comeback in Ukraine. If Zelensky allows him authority to implement his reforms,
rather than merely proposing them, Saakashvili will become popular.
(Saakashvili likely had to promise Zelensky that he would not compete against
him in elections in order to get appointed to the National Reforms Council.) Yet
if his proposals get derailed, in one way or another, Saakashvili can yet again
position himself as the reformer thwarted by Ukraine’s corrupt elites. Either
way, he will have extended his political career.