12/11/2023
Lviv, Ukraine, 12 November 2023 - The Advisory Group of Experts (AGE), set up to assist the Ukrainian authorities in evaluating the moral qualities and professional competences of candidate judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, held its first official meeting on 12 November 2023 in Lviv, Ukraine.
At its first meeting, the AGE elected its Chair and Secretary and adopted its Regulations. It also discussed the draft Assessment Methodology, which will be adopted at the next meeting, enabling the AGE to start fulfilling its main task of assessing the moral qualities and professional competences of candidate judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The AGE is an extraordinary mechanism set up following a series of the Venice Commission opinions adopted in 2022-2023. The AGE is composed of three international members appointed by the Venice Commission, the EU and the USAID and three national members appointed by the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Congress of Judges of Ukraine as follows:
• Mr Aleš Zalar, Chair of the AGE, former judge of District Court in Ljubljana and former Minister of Justice of Slovenia;
• Mr Yaroslav Romaniuk, Secretary of the AGE, former President of the Supreme Court of Ukraine;
• Ms Hanna Suchocka, Honorary President of the Venice Commission, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland;
• Ms Maureen O’Connor, former Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, United States;
• Ms Oksana Vasylchenko, Director of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Law of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine;
• Ms Nataliia Kuznietsova, Professor of the civil law department at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine.
The meeting was co-organised by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the EU, the USAID and the Venice Commission. It was broadcast live on the official website and YouTube channel of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Further to its contribution to the legislative process leading to setting up the AGE, the Venice Commission continues supporting the AGE’s work in the framework of the Project “Supporting Constitutional and Legal Reforms in Ukraine”.