Brussels offers Ukraine informal dialog to solve problems in justice

Brussels has proposed establishing an informal dialog with Ukraine to resolve "systemic problems" in the field of justice, Deputy Secretary General for Inter-Institutional Affairs at the European External Action Service Maciej Popowski has said.

At a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in Strasbourg on Tuesday, he reiterated the view of Brussels, according to which there are "systemic problems" in the Ukrainian judicial system, which "require systemic solutions."

He said that the EU was currently considering a new Criminal Procedure Code, in particular, Articles 364 and 365 (under which former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was convicted).

Popowski also stressed the need to establish a preventive mechanism that would make selective justice impossible.

"These reforms [in the judicial system] require a lot of work, and we would propose establishing an informal dialog [with Ukraine] with the participation of the Council of Europe," he said.

He said that Brussels considers criminal cases against Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and others such that are "not consistent with international standards."