Zelenskyy signs anti-corruption laws to implement EU recommendations

Volodymyr Zelenskyy. photo: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed bills on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which are necessary to implement the recommendations of the European Commission. The bills were approved by the Ukrainian Parliament on that same day, 8 December.

Source: European Pravda, informational pages on all three laws on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.

Details: The Law on National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) provides for an increase in the maximum number of staff of the NABU from 700 to 1,000 people. In particular, the number of officers should increase from 500 to 750 people.

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According to the law on the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), the SAPO is removed from the office of the Prosecutor General and reorganised into a separate prosecutor’s office in the general system of prosecutor’s offices with the status of a separate legal entity of public law.

It also provides for changes in the competitive selection procedure for the positions of the head, his deputies and prosecutors of the SAPO.

Without affecting the regulations that apply to national security during martial law, the Law on the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP) permits the institution to inspect property obtained for public service and property acquired by declarants prior to appointment to the civil service.

Background: 

• On 8 November, the European Commission recommended that the European Council begin accession negotiations with Ukraine after completing four more steps.
• Among them is the adoption of a government bill to increase the staffing of the NABU and exclusion of provisions that limit the NAPC’s powers to verify “already verified” assets and property acquired by declarants before entering the civil service from the law on the prevention of corruption.
• In addition to anti-corruption laws, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a new law on national minorities, one of the European Commission’s seven requirements for Ukraine’s further progress towards EU membership.

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