The Constitutional Court of Ukraine hosted a two-day TAIEX workshop on the introduction of a constitutional complaint
On January 18-19, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine hosted a workshop on the implementation of constitutional complaint. The event was organised with the support of the European Commission TAIEX programme in co-operation with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. Vice President of the Constitutional Court of Croatia Snjezana Bagic, Deputy Secretary General of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic Vlastimil Gottinger, Secretary General of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania Ingrida Daneliene were the TAIEX experts.
The workshop was preceded with a meeting of Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Viktor Kryvenko with the international experts.
The workshop was attended by the Head of the Secretariat 
of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yaroslav Vasylkevych, heads and employees of structural units, assistants and scientific consultants of the judges of the Constitutional Court, as well as Head of the Department for Legal Policy of the Delegation of EU in Ukraine Andrii Spivak, Key National Expert on Judiciary at EU Programme “Support Rule of Law Reforms in Ukraine” (PRAVO) Oksana Matiyash.
The training program consisted of several sessions on the following topics: "Stages, forms and subject of preliminary processing of constitutional complaints, decisions taken upon the results of 
preliminary processing", " The procedure for preparing an analytical opinion on a constitutional complaint", "Organisation of work of senates, boards, judge-rapporteur to consider constitutional complaints (formation of the agenda, decision-making procedure, familiarisation with materials of cases, etc.)".
Opening the workshop, the Head of the 
Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yaroslav Vasylkevych emphasised on relevance of the issues raised in view of the introduction of the constitutional complaint in our country stipulated by the amendments to the Basic Law and the Law of Ukraine "On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine". He sincerely thanked the international experts for their participation, which demonstrates their openness and readiness to share significant experience on the constitutional complaint of the constitutional courts of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Croatia, and the Republic of Lithuania.
Vice President of the Constitutional Court of Croatia Snjezana Bagic initiated the presentation. The speaker described in detail the powers of the Constitutional Court of Croatia, its organisational structure, dwelt upon at the stages of the preliminary consideration of constitutional complaint and the conditions for its admissibility outlined a number of typical mistakes made by the applicants, and informed about the procedure for preparing an analytical report.
She noted that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia resolves the question of the constitutionality of laws, adopts decisions on constitutional complaints, monitors compliance with constitutionality and legality, and resolves jurisdictional disputes between the legislative, executive and judicial authorities.
Presenting the organisational structure of the Constitutional C
ourt of Croatia, the expert spoke, in particular, about the court advisers. She emphasised that based on their work experience, advisers are divided into three categories. Yet, there is also the fourth category - seniour court advisers who serve as mentors. In addition to performing their direct duties, they provide mentoring and training for junior counselors.
Snjezana Bagic noted that specific articles of the Regulation of the Constitutional Court of Croatia envisage consideration of constitutional complaints. The Regulation specifies the requirements to be met by a person who wishes to file a constitutional complaint. In particular, a person must exhaust all judicial remedies and file a complaint no later than 30 days after receiving the relevant court decision.
