27 January 2021, Wednesday, 18:12 118

Zelenskyy Withdraws Draft Law On Termination Of Constitutional Court Judges’ Powers

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has withdrawn draft law No. 4288 on restoration of public confidence in constitutional proceedings, which provides for termination of the powers of the Constitutional Court’s judges and declaration of the Constitutional Court's decision on electronic asset declarations as worthless (without legal consequences).

This is stated in information published on the draft law’s webpage on the parliament’s website, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

According to this information, the draft law was withdrawn on Wednesday, January 27.

At the beginning of December 2020, the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy postponed the consideration of draft laws related to the Constitutional Court to the second half of December at the request of Zelenskyy, who had asked the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) to provide an expedited opinion on the state of anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine following the Constitutional Court’s decisions.

Zelenskyy asked the parliament to consider the relevant initiatives after provision of the Venice Commission’s opinion, which was expected during December 11-12.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Zelenskyy proposed on October 30, 2020, that the parliament terminate the powers of Constitutional Court judges following the Constitutional Court’s October 27 decision that declared the National Agency on Corruption Prevention’s powers to verify declarations and monitor the lifestyles of declarants unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Court also ruled that open access to the register of electronic asset declarations and criminal responsibility for inaccurate asset declarations were unconstitutional.

On December 15, 2020, the parliament restored the National Agency on Corruption Prevention’s powers to verify declarations and monitor the lifestyles of declarants and reintroduced criminal responsibility for inaccurate asset declarations (“restriction of freedom” for up to two years if the declared amount differs from the actual amount by more than UAH 9 million).