The Council of Europe is currently implementing the Project “Supporting constitutional and legal reforms, constitutional justice and assisting the Verkhovna Rada in conducting reforms aimed at enhancing its efficiency” (Phase 3) (hereinafter – the Project) and is launching a tender procedure for procurement of national consultancy services.

The DEADLINE for submission of tender proposals is 18:00, 25 September 2022 (Kyiv time)

Tender PROPOSALS shall be submitted by email only to the e-mail address [email protected], with the following reference in the subject line: Call for national consultants_8807/2022/01FC. Proposals addressed to any other e-mail address will be rejected.

All QUESTIONS shall be submitted at least 5 (five) working days before the deadline for submission of the tenders and shall be exclusively addressed to the [email protected] e-mail address with the following reference in the subject line: Questions national consultants_8807/2022/01FC.

The topics for consultants are divided into the following two lots. Tenderers may submit a tender offer for one or all (two) lots subject to the fulfilment of the criteria listed in the Tender Rules (attached below). The Council of Europe is looking for up to 20 providers per each lot (provided enough tenders meet the criteria indicated in the Tender Rules) in order to support the implementation of the Project with a particular expertise in the fields listed below.

Lot 1 Expert support in implementing constitutional and Parliamentary reforms in line with standards of the Venice Commission.

Russia attacked the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine. But its armed attack is also an attack on the Ukrainian constitutional order. Ukraine is a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law. Russia uses armed force to unconstitutionally change Ukrainian territory, disregarding the rules, institutions and procedures defined by the Constitution of Ukraine. The protection of Ukraine consists, among other things, in the protection of constitutional democracy and the rule of law. The central institution of the Ukrainian constitutional system is the Verkhovna Rada, which, according to Article 75 of the Constitution of Ukraine, is the only body of legislative power in Ukraine and which continues to work during the state of war and emergency, and which requires comprehensive support from the expert community and international partners.

On June 23, 2022, the leaders of the European Union at the summit in Brussels approved the decision to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession. This historic decision only confirms that Ukraine is part of a large European family, and that Ukraine has come a long way before that, proving to everyone its commitment to the values ​​of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

However, this decision to grant candidate status was based on the conclusion of the European Commission regarding Ukraine's compliance with the requirements for a candidate state. At the same time as the candidate status was approved, Brussels put demands on Kyiv regarding the implementation of reforms, providing a list of seven points that Ukraine must fulfill in order to maintain the candidate status, some of which relate to judicial reform and reforming the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and which will be the direct focus of the project.

Topics within this lot will include but are not limited to the following:

• Peculiarities of the Parliament's activity and decision-making during martial law and state of emergency
• Implementation of the principles of legality, legal certainty, proportionality and other components of the rule of law in the work of the Parliament of Ukraine based on the Rule of Law Checklist (developed and approved by the Venice Commission)
• Conducting analysis and providing recommendations on the development of new draft laws and their implementation based on the components of the rule of law (Rule of Law Checklist)
• Understanding the peculiarities of law-making and law-enforcement activities and practices in other countries
• Ways of introducing the best examples of international law-making practice in Ukraine
• Analysis of the system of regulatory legal acts of Ukraine, the principles of its construction, the legal nature and status of its individual elements
• Prevention of violations of the rule of law and democracy in parliamentary activity
• Development of standards for the assessment of normative legal acts adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine, law enforcement bodies, primarily courts
• Informational support of law-making and law-enforcement processes
• The issue of responsibility for law-making activity that does not meet the criteria of the Rule of Law Checklist
• The question of increasing the competence of parliamentarians regarding law-making activity
• Standards and documents of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission) and their implementation in Ukrainian legislative practice
• Analysis of changes to the Constitution of Ukraine for compliance with international and European principles and standards
• Nature of Constitutional changes and international experience of amending the Constitution
• A comprehensive vision of prospects for improvement of the Constitution of Ukraine.

Lot 2 Expert support in implementing the reforms of electoral legislation in line with standards of the Venice Commission.

Elections are a tool of peacetime. However, it is already necessary to think about what risks the war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine brought for the future electoral process in Ukraine. Already now it is necessary to talk, think, analyze the ways of development of electoral legislation and practices that must be implemented after the victory of Ukraine in order for it (electoral legislation) to be an adequate tool for the development of Ukrainian society and meet the main principles and standards of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission and the best European practitioners

Topics within this lot will include but are not limited to the following:

• Elections and suffrage in Ukraine before and after the war
• Electoral systems in parliamentary and local elections
• Formation of the composition of election commissions
• Appealing violations of election legislation
• Financial and logistical support for the preparation and conduct of elections
• Informational support for elections and pre-election campaigning (campaigning)
• The role of social networks and the Internet in the election process;
• Preparation and conduct of voting and counting of voters' votes
• Participation of citizens in elections
• The issue of responsibility for violations of election legislation
• Protection of voting rights of IDPs and labor migrants
• Ensuring a balanced gender representation in the electoral bodies (ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in the electoral process).
• Voter lists, voter registration, state voter register
• Issues related to the competence of the Central Election Commission
• Formation of a network of territorial representative offices of the CEC.
• The issue of financing political parties in Ukraine
• Training and professionalization of the activities of election commission members
• Introduction of the possibility of using electronic services and innovative technologies in the election process
• The issue of improving the election administration process
• Elimination of inconsistencies and gaps in the provisions of the Election Code of Ukraine regarding the appeal of decisions, actions or inactions related to the election process; forming the composition of election commissions; procedure for nomination and registration of candidates; making a cash deposit; territorial organization of elections; establishment of election results and other aspects of the election.
• Issues of legislative regulation of national and local referendums in Ukraine
• Standards of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission) and Ukrainian legislation
• Best practices in the electoral field

More detailed information about the Project, details on tender procedure and assessment criteria are in the enclosed Tender file / terms of reference.

You are encouraged to apply and submit the following documents by e-mail to [email protected] by 25 September 2022, 18:00 (Kyiv time):

· A completed and signed copy of the Act of Engagement[1] (See attached);

• A scanned copy of a valid photographic proof of identity (e.g. passport) for natural person;
• A detailed CV in English, preferably in Europass Format, demonstrating clearly that the tenderer fulfils the eligibility criteria or company profile for legal persons including detailed CVs in English of allocated experts;

• Registration documents for private entrepreneurs and legal persons only (including those that prove the ability to carry out the respective types of economic activities);
• A letter of motivation (why you are interested in participating in the activities of Council of Europe);
• A list of drafted expert opinions, legislation assessments, reports and other relevant materials with active links to them to the extent possible (but not less than 2) on the topics covered by this tender.

Please note that Act of Engagement, CV and motivation letter shall be submitted in English, failure to do so will result in the exclusion of the tender. Other supporting documents can be provided in English or Ukrainian.

If any of the documents listed above are missing, the Council of Europe reserves the right to reject the tender.

For more details and full description of the terms and conditions of the consultants’ involvement please refer to below attachments to this announcement.

Tender File

Act of Engagement

The Act of Engagement must be completed, signed and scanned in its entirety (i.e. including all the pages). The scanned Act of Engagement may be sent page by page (attached to a single email) or as a compiled document, although a compiled document would be preferred. For all scanned documents, .pdf files are preferred.