A threat to judicial reform and Eurointegration: on Thursday, the Parliament will vote on draft law No. 7662, which will make changes to the procedure for selecting judges of the Constitutional Court

The meeting of the Parliamentary Legal Committee has ended. At the meeting, the MPs approved draft law № 7662, which will introduce changes to the procedure for selecting judges of the Constitutional Court.

The results are not encouraging. First, the decisions of the Advisory Group of Experts, which will assess the candidates, will NOT be binding. This poses the threat of further political appointments of engaged judges of the Constitutional Court. Second, there will not be a single representative of civil society in the first composition of the Advisory Group of Experts. At the same time, more than 70% of Ukrainians believe that representatives of civil society should participate in the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Razumkov Center on September 16-22, 2022, commissioned by DEJURE Foundation.

Earlier, information appeared in the media that this draft law will be considered at the next plenary session this Thursday. This draft law is a sabotage of judicial reform. We believe that the adoption of the draft law in this version endangers Ukraine’s EU candidate status. Therefore, NGOs and concerned citizens call on the MPs not to vote for the new version of draft law № 7662.