On 21 August and 31 August, the President of Ukraine appointed new judges to the High Anti-Corruption Court and its Appeals Chamber. The appointment followed a lengthy, multi-stage competition that began back in June 2025.
The EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI) supported the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine (HQCJ) and the Public Council of International Experts (PCIE) in conducting the competition. This support helped strengthen the transparency of the competition procedures and introduce additional mechanisms for analyzing candidates’ integrity.
Support for the HACC competition is an investment in tools and practices that can be applied to other competitions and evaluations. The EUACI will continue to support its beneficiaries in improving integrity verification processes.
New data for integrity verification
For the first time, on the recommendation of the EUACI experts, the HQCJ centrally requested data on how candidates used their full access to the Unified State Register of Court Decisions (USRCD). This made it possible to check whether candidates had used the Register for purposes unrelated to their official duties.
The EUACI conducted a practical workshop for the HQCJ and the PCIE to strengthen their capacity to effectively analyze this data. The results of the analysis formed the basis for written and oral questions to candidates.
Doubts regarding improper use of the USRCD access are reflected in three joint HQCJ and PCIE decisions finding candidates non-compliant with integrity criteria.
The HQCJ continues to apply this practice, including in the competition for specialized administrative courts and during judges’ qualification assessment.
Analysis of case law and asset declarations
A data analyst engaged by the EUACI summarized the results of candidates’ handling of case categories that draw heightened public attention:
- driving under the influence;
- administrative offense cases related to corruption;
- cases on deprivation of parental rights and determination of a child’s place of residence.
The PCIE gained the ability to generate a history of changes in candidates’ property and produce cash-flow reports based on the NACP asset declarations in open data format. This sped up the analysis of declarations and simplified verification of income-expenditure consistency.
The PCIE experts also attended a training session on the potential use of data from the “Safe City” video surveillance systems.
Better broadcast quality
The EUACI purchased and installed new cameras in the HQCJ’s plenary hall. All interviews the Commission conducts in this hall are now broadcast with significantly improved image quality.
