On 9 June 2017 the round table “Initial Training System for Prosecutors: International Practices and Ukrainian Prospects” was held in Kyiv. The event was organised by the Council of Europe under the Project “Continued support to the criminal justice reform in Ukraine”, funded by the Danish Government, jointly with the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine (GPO) and the National Academy of Prosecutors of Ukraine (NAPU) and in partnership with the European Union Advisory Mission – Ukraine (EUAM Ukraine).

The event aimed at sharing experience on different models of initial training systems for prosecutors in Europe; discussing needs and challeges of the implementation of the new prosecutorial initial training system in Ukraine; and identifying measures for further development of the Ukrainian system of initial training of prosecutors.

Opening welcome remarks were done by Mr Marten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, Mr Oleksandr Tolochko, Vice Rector of the National Academy of Prosecutors and Mr Fabian Loewenberg, Head of Rule of Law Component, EUAM Ukraine.  Mr Jeremy McBride, the Council of Europe consultant, gave an introductory speech providing an overview of the key international standards pertinent to the initial training of prosecutors and presented a comparative study on prosecutorial initial training prepared within the framework of the Project “Continued support to the criminal justice reform in Ukraine”.

Overviews of prosecutorial training systems in several Council of Europe member states were done by representatives of the relevant judicial training institutions, namely by Mr Leon Plas, Lecturer for the Prosecution and Criminal Law and Senior Advocate–General of the SSR Studiecentrum Rechtspleging of the Netherlands, Ms Agnieszka Pilch, Head of the Unit for Initial Training Curriculum of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution of Poland; Fabian Loewenberg and Ian Richardson of the EUAM Ukraine, presented  the training systems of Germany and the United Kingdom respectively.

The format of the event facilitated exchange of experience and interactive discussions during which the following topics were covered:  organisational, administrative and financial modalities of operation of institutions responsible for initial training of prosecutors; methods of recruitment of prosecutors and respective entitlement to training, nature of the training, post-training evaluation of prosecutors and the consequences of the evaluation; scope and organisation of initial trainings; content and types of training programmes; roles played by the prosecutorial/judicial self-governance bodies in the initial training.

In the light of the recent legislative changes in Ukraine, the needs and challenges of the Ukrainian initial training system for prosecutors were discussed under a separate session. During the concluding discussion, recommendations on best practices to be applied in Ukraine and measures required for the improvement of the Ukrainian system were considered.

Encl: Comparative study on initial training for public prosecutors.