On March 23, 2024, the Advisory Group of Experts held a meeting at which summed up the results of the stage of assessing the moral qualities of candidates for the position of judge of the CCU, and also adopted a number of decisions regarding the assessing of the level of competence in the field of law.
The Chairman of the AGE Ales Zalar reminded that on March 2-8, 2024, the Advisory Group of Experts conducted interviews with candidates and, within the next 15 days, completed the evaluation of the candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding their compliance with the criterion of high moral qualities.
As a result, the following candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court, admitted to the competition by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, received the rate „compliant“ with the criterion of high moral qualities –
Yurii Barabash,
Oleksandr Vodiannikov,
Serhii Riznyk,
Taras Tsymbalistyi,
Roman Yaromenok and
Nataliia Denysenko (also admitted by quota of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine).
A total of 6 candidates for 3 vacant positions of CCU judge according to the Parliament's quota.
According to the quota of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine, the following candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court received the rate „compliant“ with the criterion of high moral qualities –
Alla Oliinyk,
Oleksandra Yanovska and
Nataliia Denysenko (admitted also according to the quota of the Parliament of Ukraine).
A total of 3 candidates for 2 vacant positions according to the quota of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine.
Thus, these candidates get to the next stage of competitive selection – assessing the level of competence in the field of law.
And the rest of the candidates who, accordingly, received the rate „non-compliant“, are considered to have failed this stage of assessment and stop their participation in the competition.
The Chairman of the AGE Ales Zalar thanked all those candidates who stopped participating in the competition today for their perseverance and constructive interaction with the AGE.
In turn, the Secretary of the AGE Yaroslav Romaniuk also thanked the candidates for the courage to participate in such an unprecedentedly transparent and quite demanding competition.
„We understand that such a serious competition became a real challenge for absolutely all candidates and not all of them managed to cope with it. It is obvious that this happened for various reasons - objective and subjective - one of the candidates simply could not dispel doubts, and some doubts are practically impossible to dispel.
In any case, the conclusion of the AGE „non-compliant“ is not a judgment or a stamp, and the legislation and competition procedures allow to try again – to collect evidences and find reasonable answers to the doubts voiced during the interviews, and to honestly explain to the AGE and the Ukrainian society the problems we identified“, – emphasized the Secretary of the AGE.
Yaroslav Romaniuk also called on professional and honest lawyers to submit documents for participation in the competition, which has already been announced by the President of Ukraine, as well as in subsequent competitions for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
In addition to the results of the stage of assessing the candidates' moral qualities, the Advisory Group of Experts made all the necessary decisions to step to the stage of assessing the competence of candidates in the field of law.
First of all, the AGE approved the conditions for conducting a written assessment of candidates to determine the level of competence in the field of law. These conditions will be published on the website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and on the resources of the AGE.
Also, the Advisory Group of Experts approved the composition of the external group of international experts for the preparation of written questions, as well as the guidance for the preparation of these written questions by the international group of experts.
At the same time, the AGE announced the date of the written assessment of the level of competence in the field of law. It will be held on April 5, 2024.
For security reasons, the Advisory Group will notify all candidates about the exact time and location of the assessment the day before.
At the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the AGE Ales Zalar drew attention to the situation in the competition by the quota of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine and reminded about legislative requirements regarding the minimum permissible competition for one vacant position.
„Given the fact that for one of the two vacancies according to the quota of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine, the number of candidates who compliant with the criterion of high moral qualities is less than two persons for one vacant position of judge of the Constitutional Court, the Council of Judges of Ukraine should announce a new competition for one of the two vacant positions as required by the Law of Ukraine "On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine“, – noted the Chairman of the AGE.
Alesh Zalar noted that, in fact, it can be considered that the competition for one of the two vacant positions of a judge of the CCU according to the quota of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine has stopped due to the insufficient number of candidates to continue the competitive selection for this vacant position.
He also added that the Advisory Group of Experts will officially inform the Council of Judges of Ukraine about this, so that it can immediately take the measures provided for by the legislation of Ukraine and announce a new competition for that vacant position.
