An advisory group of experts that evaluates candidates for the positions of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) has accused the Verkhovna Rada of delaying the appointment of judges.
This is stated in the groupʼs message on Facebook.
They recalled that on July 4, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy published an explanation of some provisions of the law "On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine" regarding the status and activities of the advisory group of experts.
According to experts, with this clarification, the Committee is once again trying to publicly shift responsibility for the almost five-month delay in the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Court onto the advisory group of experts.
"The Committee motivates its inaction by the fact that the DHE allegedly does not provide the representatives of the Committee with all the documents of the candidates [...] At the same time, both the law and the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada clearly and unambiguously define the list of documents that the DHE transfers to the committee and which documents the parliament uses to make decisions on candidates for the positions of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine," the report says.
These documents are a ranking list, motivated decisions on the candidatesʼ compliance with the level of high moral qualities and a recognized level of competence in the field of law.
The advisory group submitted all these documents to the relevant committee on February 19. The committeeʼs demands to provide any other documents have no legal basis and are manipulation, the advisory group believes.
The advisory group also emphasized that as of July 7, the Verkhovna Rada committee had not even conducted interviews with the candidates.
Why is this important?
For the Constitutional Court to work, there must be a quorum — 12 out of 18 judges. Until June 27, there were only 11 judges — because of this, the Grand Chamber and one of the senates of the court were not working. The court could not consider, for example, appeals from peopleʼs deputies, the president, or other constitutional submissions.
On June 27, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Oleksandr Vodyannikov, a former coordinator of OSCE projects in Ukraine, as a judge of the Constitutional Court, thereby unblocking the courtʼs work. However, the quorum in the Constitutional Court remains very shaky.
After the presidentʼs appointment, six vacancies still remain on the Constitutional Court: two to be filled by the president, two by the Verkhovna Rada, and two by the Congress of Judges. The Verkhovna Rada also submitted nominations in February, but the deputies have not yet made any decisions.
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