Venice Commission conclusion was expected, law on Constitutional Court of Ukraine could not be adopted in this form

"Expected! Venice Commission recommends changing the so-called European integration draft law on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. During the discussion of the draft law, European Solidarity warned that exactly such a conclusion would be drawn by Venice Commission. And they insisted on our amendments, which would bring the draft in line with European norms. And we would like the competition for the election of Constitutional Court judges to be independent and transparent," Herashchenko notes.

"We are not the only ones who did not vote for this draft law in its current form. As usual, it was pushed through the hands of different political parties. Now we have great risks of usurpation of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by the authorities and complete dependence on this institution, which will be appointed from the same center. This is dangerous for the entire judicial system and democracy in general," Iryna Herashchenko believes.

"It is not enough to put the European flag in front of the draft law on the agenda. It is important to fill the laws with content that corresponds to the norms and EU practices. This is often a problem. Venice Commission's conclusion states that the Advisory Group of Experts, which will check candidates for the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, needs to include one more, the seventh member from among independent international experts. In the amendments, we insisted on 8 experts of Advisory Group and mandatory inclusion of public representatives and international experts there," the co-chair of the faction reminded.

"Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) adopted a law that provides for six members of the Advisory Group, three of whom are independent experts, and the rest are appointed by the president, Verkhovna Rada, and Congress of Judges, and without the vote of the latter, no decision can be made. This is a usurpation of power. I don't know how it was possible to vote for it," Iryna Herashchenko sums up.