Parliamentary debate on the European Commission’s Report on Ukraine – Tomorrow’s Lawyers join the discussion
Parliamentary debate on the European Commission’s Report on Ukraine – Tomorrow’s Lawyers join the discussion
We continue to share the conclusions and recommendations of the Shadow Report regarding the Bar. This time, we had the opportunity to speak about the need for changes in the Bar before parliamentarians at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU.
On 21 November, a special meeting of the committee was held to discuss the European Commission’s report on Ukraine as part of the EU’s 2025 enlargement package, attended by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka, Acting Minister of Justice Lyudmila Sugak, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksandr Kornienko, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Kateryna Maternova, members of parliament, members of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU, chairpersons of the Verkhovna Rada subcommittees on European integration, as well as representatives of civil society organisations that prepared the Shadow Report on Sections 23 and 24 on Ukraine’s progress: Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives, Transparency International Ukraine, ZMINA Human Rights Centre, Europe Without Borders, Ukrainian Bar Association, and Tomorrow’s Lawyer.
The director of Tomorrow’s Lawyer, Daria Pysarenko, had the opportunity to hold a speech at the meeting. In her speech, she emphasised that without reforming the bar, it is impossible to complete the reform of the justice system as a whole. The European Commission has already stressed the need to update the system three times, and the inclusion of the bar in the Roadmap for Reforms is an important signal for the beginning of real change.
Daria also highlighted the key areas identified by the European Commission in this year’s report, namely the need to reform the system of forming bar self-government bodies. These newly elected SGB will determine the quality of the functioning of the bar, including issues of access to the profession, professional development, disciplinary procedures and the effectiveness of internal governance.
Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that the reform must be accompanied by a strengthening of lawyers’ rights and guarantees in order to ensure a truly competitive process and compliance with European standards of justice.
The importance of the bar community’s participation in the reform and the key role of parliament as the only body with the power to adopt systemic changes in the bar through legislative changes was also emphasised.
We are moving forward and continuing to work to ensure that the recommendations of the Shadow Report and Roadmap are translated into real steps, and that the Bar becomes a qualitatively stronger and institutionally independent element of justice.
For more details and recommendations on the need for change in the Bar, see the Shadow Report.
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The Shadow Report was prepared by a coalition of civil society organisations led by the Legislative Initiatives Laboratory as part of a grant provided by the EU Project Pravo-Justice, implemented by Expertise France. Its content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union.
📸Photo: Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU
