An online meeting with the Director General of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe took place in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine
On December 14, 2020, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi together with Judges Viktor Horodovenko, Petro Filiuk and Halyna Yurovska held a professional meeting with the Director General of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe Christos Giakoumopoulos and Head of Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights Pavlo Pushkar.
During the event, the parties discussed the activities of the Council of Europe in the field of constitutional justice and the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Ukraine.
At the beginning of the meeting, Oleksandr Tupytskyi, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, thanked the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe for a joint opinion with the Venice Commission on the legislative situation regarding anti-corruption mechanisms following Decision no. 13-r/2020 of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. Oleksandr Tupytskyi said that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine was examining the critical remarks to the decision set out in the opinion for consideration in the future. The Chairman of the Court also thanked for the support and trust they expressed to the current composition of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
In turn, the Director General of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, Christos Giakoumopoulos, expressed hope for the continuation of the productive dialogue that has lasted for many years between the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
During the conversation, the parties focused on Ukraine's execution of ECtHR judgments and the role of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in this process.
In this context, Christos Giakoumopoulos appreciated a number of Constitutional Court decisions on judicial reform, which had clearly stated that judicial reform could continue only if the Constitution of Ukraine and leading European standards in this area were met. He assured that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is also positive about the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, in particular, on declaring unconstitutional Article 375 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provided for the responsibility of judges for “deliberately unjust decision” and declaring unconstitutional the provisions of Article 26.2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Enforcement Proceedings” and abolishing the mandatory payment of an advance payment by a person in whose favour the court decision was delivered, as a necessary condition for enforcement of this decision by the state executive service.
According to Christos Giakoumopoulos, the ECtHR is considering 10,000 applications against Ukraine, thus the adoption of these decisions by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will have a positive impact on reducing the number of such applications in the future. According to the Director General of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, the new laws to be adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament must take into account the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and comply with the Constitution of Ukraine.
During the meeting, the interlocutors paid attention to other topical issues.
In particular, they agreed to develop a joint communication work plan to identify key issues that need to be addressed effectively. The parties also discussed the possibility of conducting a comparative analysis of cases with similar areas of human rights pending before the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the ECtHR. The interlocutors also spoke in favour of holding a joint event with the participation of Council of Europe bodies to discuss the role of constitutional justice in the execution of ECtHR judgments and to develop effective mechanisms for execution of ECtHR judgments, decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine upon constitutional complaints and national courts.
In conclusion, the parties thanked each other once again for a meaningful professional meeting and expressed readiness to continue an active dialogue to deepen cooperation.
