The New Draft of the Roadmap Poses Risks to the Independence of the Public Integrity Council

As part of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU), the country must adopt a Rule of Law Reform Roadmap (the Roadmap) and define key priorities within it. Only by implementing these reforms can we complete negotiations on Chapters 23 and 24 of the EU Acquis and secure Ukraine’s desired EU membership. That is why it is now critically important to clearly and specifically outline the priority reforms in the Roadmap.

On February 10, 2025, the Government submitted the first draft of the Roadmap to civil society organisations for review. DEJURE Foundation believes that not only does this draft fail to consider key comments from the public, but it also contains provisions that threaten the judicial reform process and the independence of the Public Integrity Council (PIC).

Specifically, the latest version of the Roadmap includes a provision for “developing and adopting a law aimed at more clearly defining the tasks and powers of the PIC,” including “improving requirements for its members, ensuring diversity in its composition to reflect society, strengthening conflict of interest rules, including through the introduction of an effective control mechanism”.

We firmly believe this provision introduces vague filters for the PIC candidates, which could lead to the selection of only “convenient” individuals while excluding most of civil society. This would undermine the Council’s quality, make it dependent on political power, and restrict analysts’ full access to judges’ dossiers, replacing institutional strengthening with barriers to participation.

These attempts are not new. During the consideration of draft law No. 10140-д, there were already efforts to create a politically controlled PIC, as DEJURE previously reported. Although the attempt to dismantle the idea of the independent PIC was unsuccessful at that time, unfortunately, these intentions have now resurfaced in the new draft of the Roadmap.

Despite Ukraine’s European integration aspirations and its commitment to ensuring genuine rule of law, the Roadmap now includes dangerous provisions that undermine public oversight over judicial selection and assessment in its current form.

We urge the Government, the European Commission, and EU member states to pay close attention to the provisions that threaten the independence of the PIC and remove them from the final version of the Roadmap.