Twinning Project Closing Ceremony Took Place in the Supreme Court

Today, on 21 June, closing the Twinning Project “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the Supreme Court in the Sphere of Human Rights Protection at the National Level” took place.

The SC President Valentyna Danishevska presented her welcoming speech.

The judge noted that presently it was possible to talk about victories and to be proud of joint achievements. Those were results of many expert missions, multiple trainings, studies and discussions. The experience, which would become a significant basis for the further work, had been gained. The Project had started its activity in 2017, during the complicated time of the establishment and development of the new Supreme Court. However, the professionalism, coordinated cooperation and clear vision of priorities had completely reduced all difficulties on the way to the achievement of the Project aims. During this period representatives of the Court and the Project had become professional partners, as well as reliable friends.

Valentyna Danishevska also put emphasis on the multi-vector nature of the Project. Particularly, it dealt with upgrading normative and legal basis, the improvement of professional qualification of the Supreme Court judges and strengthening its administrative potential.

The SC President considers that the Project’s greatest achievement and the most significant contribution are represented by the communicational component of the Supreme Court’s activity.

Valentyna Danishevska underlined that the Court had developed communicational policy, and the Twinning Project experts had had considerable impact on its contents. Now the Court should implement such policy.

According to Stefan Schleuning, the Head of Cooperation Programmes in the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the Project has become an important tool, which let exchange opinions and experience among colleagues from different countries.

Stefan Schleuning remarked that the judicial reform in Ukraine continued; in future it should demonstrate more significant results. The European Union had provided considerable support within many projects, and presently Ukrainian judges should apply experts’ recommendations on practice for the further development. Particularly, it dealt with the application of procedural filters, the institution of specialization of judges, application of IT for case law unification, etc.

The Head of Legal and Consular Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine Jens Kraus-Massé put emphasis on the increasing quality of judicial proceedings in Ukraine. In his opinion, this was the result of joint work of judges, the National School of Judges of Ukraine and the High Qualification Commission of Judges.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia to Ukraine Juris Poikāns assured that Ukraine and Latvia had friendly relations, links in touristic, educational and economic spheres and, at the same time, did not have linguistic barrier. That, definitely, assisted in the realization of similar projects. For Latvia it was very important to see Ukraine’s success in the implementation of the judicial reform, as well as in general.

Lina Hubar, the Head of the Division for International and Legal Cooperation of the Supreme Court, thanked the Twinning experts and the EU Delegation for their appreciation, support and trust, as well as members of the SC staff for their participation in the organization and holding multiple events within the Project.

Judges of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court Larysa Rohach and Vitalii Urkevych, the Rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine Mykola Onishchuk and the Twinning Project Leader from Ukraine Oleh Kryvenda also shared their impressions from the results of the Twinning Project and their visions regarding further cooperation.

The Minister of Justice of Latvia Jānis Bordāns, the Director of the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation Dr. Stefan Hülshörster, the Leader of the Twinning Project and the Vice-President of the Cologne Higher Regional Court (Germany) Christian Schmitz-Justen, the Junior Project Leader Agris Batalauskis, the Project Permanent Advisor and judge of the Supreme Court of Latvia Jautrite Briede, as well as the Project Key Expert Anna Adamska-Gallant have also participated at the event.