On 16 June, 2017 at the premises of the Supreme Court of Ukraine the first Steering Committee meeting of the Twinning project “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in the Field of Human Rights Protection at the National Level“, that is implemented jointly with the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia.
The overall objective of the project is strengthening the independence and efficiency of the judicial branch of power through introduction of the European standards and institutional capacity of the SCU, which will allow to form the unified judicial practice of justice and will promote strengthening the rule of law in Ukraine.
The event was opened by the Project Leader, Vice-President of Higher Regional Court Cologne of Germany Christian Schmitz-Justen who welcomed the participant of the meeting, defined the main steps within the framework of contract preparation, and introduced the project team. He indicated that strengthening the institutional capacity of the Supreme Court is extremely important, because it is a kind of lighthouse of judicial system of any country. The Head of the SCU Yaroslav Romaniuk in his turn, represented the overall objective of the project and noted that the procedure of selection of judges to the Supreme Court still continues, in this regard it was decided to start realization of the component No 2 ”Training activities“ after the new Supreme Court judges begin their work after training course, that will be conducted by the National School of Judges. Furthermore the Head of the Supreme Court undelined that bringing the national judicial system in line with the European standards is the key to Ukraine's integration into the European Union.
The Resident Twinning Advisor, the judge of the Supreme Court of Latvia Jautrite Briede and Junior Project Leader Agris Batalauskis thanked all the participants for their cooperation and presented the first quarterly report of the project as well as defined plans for the next reporting period.
The Project Leader from Ukraine Oleg Kryvenda, Head of the High Council of Justice Igor Benedysyuk and Vice Rector for Research of the National School of Judges of Ukraine Natalia Shuklina performed their welcome speeches.
Justice Sector Manager of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Andriy Spivak , and Resident Twinning adviser of the Twinning project “Implementation of the best European practices with the aim of strengthening the institutional capacity of the Apparatus of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights to protect human rights and freedoms” Ausra Raulichkite and other stakeholders took part in the event .
Head of the TAIEX Coordination Division of the Project Management Unit of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to Standards of the European Union Olena Rachynska attended the event .
Reference: according to Resolution of the Cabinet of Ukraine "On Approval of the Procedure for Initiation, Preparation and Implementation of the Twinning Projects” as of October 11, 2016 № 700 the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service coordinates the implementation of the institution building instrument of the European Union Twinning in Ukraine. Furthermore, in accordance with relevant legal acts the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service is the coordinator of institution building instrument TAIEX and CIB programme implementation in Ukraine. In order to provide effective coordination of Twinning, TAIEX and CIB programme the Twinning Program Administration Office in Ukraine was established, its functions are performed by the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union.
