Recruitment of public representatives to join the process of selecting judges is questionable and may have certain risks, the draft report on results of monitoring the activities of the Public Integrity Council (PIC) says referring to standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe.

The draft report, which on September 28 was presented together with the Ukrainian Bar Association, establishes that during the competition for judgeships in the Supreme Court there were 17 instances when the PIC used unreliable resources of information. There were a minimum of 21 instances of appraisal of legal rulings of candidates, which is not the competence of the public. In 20 cases irrelevant information was used, and in 17 cases information can not be verified. There were also four cases of a biased approach to assessing concrete facts and circumstances.

Because of these shortcomings, the PIC has adopted unfounded and partially unfounded conclusions during the competition for Supreme Court judgeships, the draft report says.

Head of the Council of Europe's Department of Justice and Legal Cooperation Hannah Junker during the presentation of the draft report said the process of appointed judges to positions is extremely sensitive in any democratic country and it is necessary to be very careful in the process.

Junker said PIC's authority should be elaborated clearly and regulated with necessary safeguards and review procedures.