On 16 June, the SASG attended the OECD “Ukraine Day”, a high-level consultation to discuss how the international community can support Ukraine in meeting its policy challenges and implementing ambitious structural and institutional reforms. The event was attended by a number of distinguished participants, including Miroslav Lajčák, the Slovak Republic’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and Aivaras Abromavičius, Ukraine’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

In his statement presented during the panel on “Improving governance and the rule of law” the SASG underlined that the Council of Europe pursues three objectives through its ongoing activities in Ukraine: to restore trust in Ukraine’s institutions; to ensure the stability of the legal environment; and to achieve the full respect of the commitments and treaty-based obligations to which Ukraine has signed on to before the Council of Europe and other member states. He noted that the reform process in Ukraine has now achieved cruising speed and is moving in the right direction. However, the SASG recalled that the reform process will not be complete without constitutional reform and the necessary coherence between all of the involved actors.

He also informed the participants that the Council of Europe has political, judicial and treaty-based mechanisms that continue to monitor the obligations of Ukraine. The judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the findings of the monitoring mechanisms enable the Council of Europe to target accurately its cooperation with Ukraine, including during the implementation of the adopted reforms on the protection of individual rights and the proper functioning of its institutions. This also enables the Council of Europe to take corrective action in its work with Ukraine whenever needed.