Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin met with the State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection Dr. Stefanie Hubig

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Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin met with the State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection Dr. Stefanie Hubig

 

On July 15, 2015 Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin met with the State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection Dr. Stefanie Hubig.

The meeting was also attended by the Stephanie Krüger, Ministry’s official, Wolfram Hertig, German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ), Martin Graf, Head of the Consular Section of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine, Gennadiy Ryzhkov, legal advisor of the Office of the said Foundation in Ukraine, and Head of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yaroslav Vasylkevych.

Yurii Baulin positively assessed the high level of cooperation between Ukrainian and German constitutionalists, which had resulted in a number of fruitful bilateral meetings at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in recent years.

The interlocutors discussed the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine. Chairman of the Constitutional Court informed the guests about the procedure for amending the Constitution of Ukraine established by the law and the role of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in this process. He stressed that any draft of the constitutional amendments must be submitted to the Constitutional Court ofUkraine for consideration and in the case of a positive opinion of the Court it must be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada without any changes. “The main point is that draft laws on amendments to the Constitution should not limit and cancel the constitutional human and citizen’s rights and freedoms”, emphasised the Chairman.

Yu.Baulin noted that the first draft law on constitutional amendments concerned the abolition of immunity of People's Deputies of Ukraine and change of the mechanism of bringing judges to criminal liability. He also said that the Verkhovna Rada is expected to vote on the draft law on decentralisation. "We plan to hold open hearings in this case", said the Chairman.

During the meeting, Yu.Baulin informed the guests about the amendments to be made in the Constitution regarding the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. "I am pleased to say that the powers of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine shall be supplemented with the one on examining constitutional complaints", he said and also drew attention to the fact that judges of the Constitutional Court will be appointed on a competitive basis, and it will be determined by the law.

Serious additional guarantees of independence of judges are expected, namely the remuneration of a judge shall be established by the law on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the state will ensure the security of judges and their families, judges will be dismissed upon the decision of the Constitutional Court, etc.

In addition, the participants of the meeting discussed areas of further cooperation. Dr. Stefanie Hubig offered facilitation in sharing experience between Ukrainian and German constitutionalists.

At the end, the guests thanked for the informative meeting and warm welcome and expressed hope for fruitful cooperation.