Stefanishyna on Lozovyi's “amendments”: the path may be longer, but the decision will be balanced
Kyiv • UNN
Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said that the bill to repeal the Lozovyi amendments may be delayed. The government also introduced a draft law on reforming the ARMA, agreed with the EU.
The draft law on the abolition of the so-called Lozovyi amendments may be adopted with a delay in the timeframe stipulated by the commitments, but the decision will be balanced. This was stated by the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration - Minister of Justice Olha Stefanishyna during the conference "Ukraine's Accession to the EU: Formation of a Transformational Agenda," UNN reports.
The Lozovyi amendments are one of the most controversial cases in the parliament. I can't make predictions for the next plenary session, but I have experience from previous plenary sessions. It cost me a lot of emotions and effort to work on this. This is a difficult political decision, and we will come to it. Perhaps we will come to a decision that is not within the deadlines stipulated by our commitments, but I believe that this is a very important discussion in the parliament. I am ready for the fact that this path may take longer, but the decision will be balanced,
She also commented on the draft law on reforming the ARMA.
The government has submitted a draft law fully agreed with the European Commission. It provides for the restart of this institution and an audit. This is very important for us. This is important for us because the institution was fully established on the basis of European regulation and European experience. I hope that the committee will recommend the draft law for consideration at the next session. We are actually investing in the sidelines,
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk added that the Parliament is actively working on both issues.
We are actively working on this,
Addendum
"Lozovyi's amendments stipulate that any case can be closed if the court finds that investigators or detectives had been investigating for a longer period of time before serving suspicion on specific individuals.
In 2023, the parliament passed draft law No. 10060 on the independence of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), but only with a "very partial" repeal of some of the provisions of the Lozovyi amendments.
In December 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers introduced a draft law that would eliminate the provision that criminal proceedings are closed if the pre-trial investigation period has expired after a person has been notified of suspicion, except in the case of notifying a person of suspicion of committing a serious or especially serious crime against a person's life and health.
Subsequently, three more alternative draft laws were submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. In particular, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office supported draft law No. 12367-3, which aims to improve the effectiveness of pre-trial investigation and ensure the inevitability of punishment for corruption offenses.
The NABU points out that the draft law provides for important changes to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, in particular:
abolishes the provision on closing criminal proceedings due to the expiration of the pre-trial investigation, which will make it impossible for persons to avoid liability due to formal deadlines, even in cases where they have been notified of suspicion.
This is especially important for investigating serious and especially serious crimes; it allows the head of the SAPO to extend the pre-trial investigation without the need to apply to the investigating judge, which makes it impossible to automatically close the proceedings due to the formal expiration of the investigation period;
- grants the SAPO the right to create joint investigation teams in NABU cases, which will allow for faster disclosure of complex corruption schemes committed in different jurisdictions;
- regulates the issue of extradition in corruption crimes: requests for extradition of persons suspected in NABU criminal proceedings will now be submitted by both the Prosecutor General and the head of the SAPO.
- This will speed up the process of returning individuals to Ukraine to bring them to justice.