Ukraine has been unable to receive UAH 35 billion from EU for years because Office of President does not want to clean up courts – Zhernakov
Ukraine risks losing about UAH 35 billion in EU aid due to delays in cleaning up the judicial system.
This was stated by Mykhailo Zhernakov, chairman of the board of the DEJURE Foundation, Censor.NET reports.
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"Let me tell you how Ukraine has been unable to receive 35 billion hryvnias for years because the Presidential Office refuses to clean up the courts.
Right now, we are racking our brains over whether we will even have enough money to survive, (while the government is handing out another billion for eBachok and other populism). At the same time, for two years now, we have been able to receive about 700 million euros under the Ukraine Facility programme (they say that is roughly how much is needed to feed the Ukrainian army for a year). But we are stubbornly not doing it.
Because then they would have to get rid of traitors and corrupt officials in the courts. And they are obviously more valuable to the authorities than some UAH 35 billion," he stressed.
According to Zhernakov, one of the programme’s conditions is the adoption of a law on judges’ integrity declarations.
"This is a mechanism that was supposed to replace the court clean-up procedures that had previously largely failed by the authorities. Judges themselves declare point by point how and to what extent they meet integrity standards, and if they do not, they are removed from office. ...
To receive this money, we were supposed to complete all this a year ago, by June 2025, inclusive. And under the programme’s terms, if we do not complete it by June this year, this money will be lost forever," he said.
"There is no money. UAH 35 billion is lying there for the taking. The deadline before the EU has been overdue for almost a year. For two years, there has been a programme under which this money can be obtained. For almost three years, the authorities themselves were supposed to clean up the Supreme Court after the mega-bribe scandal, Russian passports, and the rollback of reforms.
But no — we will stand by corrupt officials and traitors to the bitter end. And the money, apparently, is supposed to grow on trees in spring.
And the EU itself is supposed to ask us to join it, regardless of what is happening in the courts. Never mind that in the accession process this is called the Fundamentals, that is, the very foundations," Zhernakov concluded.
