President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Mr Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu thinks Ukraine has to carry out a serious judiciary reform.

Mr Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced it today 22 September at the festive ceremony at National University “Odesa Academy of Law”.

In particular the distinguished official said: “We are observing some progress in Ukraine regarding the democracy of law and freedom of expression. The country has been able to hold a more democratic and fair elections, but we have to agree that Ukraine has to do a lot more in those fields.”

“Those are the areas that we discussed during my official visit to Kyiv. There was a new electoral code but it’s not sufficient, so we asked to have a new electoral code before the parliamentary elections in 2012. The law on judiciary was adopted in the parliament without the opinion of Venice Commission so we asked the authorities to get to Venice Commission for the judiciary law as well as other laws, necessary laws in the future. We all agree that Ukraine needs a serious judiciary reform”, he added.

Mr Çavuşoğlu said: “Fight against corruption is also very important. So Ukraine needs to do a lot in this area as well. And regarding media, we have observed pluralism in the media, but it’s not sufficient yet. Freedom of speech and freedom of media should be fully enhanced. Well, there’s a new president elected by democratic election, new government with clear majority in the Verkhovna Rada, so there is stability, the atmosphere is very available, and there is an ambitious reform programme of the president. And we already saw some decrees and public measures of president. But what we need to see that all those reforms should be implemented and necessary laws should be adopted by the parliament and the rights of the minorities should be also fully given. So the Parliamentary Assembly is ready to assist Ukraine in those areas.”