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Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin met with the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine intends to use best practices of western countries related to the protection of human rights, and the past experience of cooperation between the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine and the OSCE has proved that we will achieve success on this path, said Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin during the meeting with the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier held on September 9, 2016 at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The meeting was attended by judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Constitutional Court on International Relations Stanislav Shevchuk, Head of Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yaroslav Vasylkevych, heads of departments of the Secretariat of the Court, Deputy Director at OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre Rasa Ostrauskaite, Senior Project Officer of OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Jeffrey Erlich, Senior Adviser of the Office of the OSCE Secretary General Mary Albon, National Legal Advisor of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Oleksandr Vodyannikov.
During the meeting, participants exchanged their views on a number of topical issues concerning ways of future cooperation.
The Court Chairman noted that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine had been supporting fruitful connections with OSCE for many years, and during long years of co-operation the Court had received substantial assistance, in particular in the area of the exchange of experiences with the constitutional jurisdictions in the countries where constitutional complaint is introducied. He also thanked for technical assistance provided to the Court, namely the new official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, online broadcast of sessions and so on.
During the meeting Yurii Baulin described the future powers of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine given to the adopted amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine in the part of justice. In particular, it concerns the enlargement of the Court authorities: constitutional complaint, issues proposed to be put forward for a national referendum on popular initiative. Chairman of the Court stressed that these amendments require the adoption of the new law on the Constitutional Court, amendments to the Rules of Procedure, as well as the need for training and education of the Court staff on processing constitutional complaints, etc. He also stressed that now there is a working group on this issue.
Chairman of the Court dwelt upon possible areas of further cooperation, including familiarisation with best international practice, training and seminars for judges, training of research consultants, assistants, staff of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court, and stressed on the importance of transparency of the Constitutional Court, and communication with the media.
In addition, Yurii Baulin told interlocutors that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is a founding member of
the Association of Constitutional Justice of the Countries of the Baltic and Black Sea Regions, and in accordance with the Association’s Statute, from January 1, 2017 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will be holding chairmanship of the Association, and the second Congress of the Association on the role of the constitutional court in the part of harmonisation of national constitution with acts of international law and EU law is planned to be held in Ukraine at the end of May 2017.
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier stressed that reforms are the important issues currently facing Ukraine. He underlined that the international community has very big expectations about the reform process.
L.Zannier noted that judicial reform is a long-term process that can not happen overnight, and it requires changes even in the mentality of people. He expressed his willingness to provide practical (methodological, training) and technical support that will be necessary for the Court in order to improve the process, work that will be conducted in this area to achieve its goals.
At the end of the meeting both sides thanked each other for the constructive meeting and expressed hope for further fruitful cooperation and successful implementation of joint projects.
On the occasion of the visit of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier made an entry in the Book of honored guests of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
