Assessment of benchmarks implementation for signing the Association Agreement as of 18 June

The progress in compliance with the benchmarks is not sufficient. Neither of eleven criteria for the signature of the Agreement has seen tangible progress. Four of them show certain progress; five, minimum progress; and two, no progress. This is the assessment of the leading independent experts carrying out the civic monitoring of benchmarks implementation for signing EU-Ukraine Association Agreement as of 17 June, which was presented in their report 'Association with the EU: how does Ukraine fulfill the benchmarks for signing the Agreement?'.

Key recommendations (until September 2013):

• Find a mutually acceptable mechanism to release Yulia Tymoshenko on any of the options (pardon, medical treatment abroad, amnesty, decriminalisation, etc);
• Ensure free and fair elections in the five single-mandate districts where the 28 October 2012 election results were not established;
• Resolve the conflict over the attempts to strip MPs of their mandates, based only on the mandate deprivation grounds fixed in the Constitution;
• Schedule elections of Kyiv mayor and city council;
• Actually launch a fundamental electoral reform based on a broad consensus, with actual involvement of, and consideration of the opinion of, the opposition, dedicated NGOs, the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe, OSCE / ODIHR
• Cancel the Law of Ukraine On National Referendum or drastically amend it to align with the Constitution of Ukraine and European standards;
• Amend the laws on the judiciary and the status of judges, in particular: to maintain genuine independence and self-governance of judges introduce competitive appointment of judges to courts at different levels increase the role of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in the introduction of consistent judicial practices harmonize the disciplinary responsibility of judges with European standards
• Adopt a new law on the prosecutor's offices based on the draft approved by the Venice Commission
• Address the underfunding of the free legal aid system in the current year and allocate adequate funding in the state budget 2014
• Amend the internal rules and regulations of correctional institutions and pre-trial detention centres or align them with laws of Ukraine, recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Prison Rules, recommendations of national preventive mechanism monitors.

Full report: Association with the EU: how does Ukraine fulfill the benchmarks for signing the Agreement?