The Ministry of Justice on a European Mission

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine will coordinate the activity of the central executive bodies on adjusting Ukraine’s legislation to the one of the European Union. The ministry ruled at the March 31 government meeting, reports Interfax Ukraine citing the Ministry of Justice’s press service. According to Ukraine’s Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych, the initiative belongs to his department. “These steps were prompted by unsatisfactory work on meeting one of Ukraine’s major obligations to meet before entering the Council of Europe: adjusting national legislation to the European one,” the minister said. Lavrynovych also stressed that, in part, in 2003 only 23 of the 64 measures envisioned by the action plan on legislation adjustment were in fact carried out by the bodies. Such important directions as working out legal acts and standards in the sphere of protection of consumers in concordance with the EU directives, drafting legal acts and standards on investment activity, drafting the bill On Introducing Amendments to the law of Ukraine On Preventing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the Social Protection of Citizens, and working out a draft Information Code of Ukraine, have not been implemented.

To strengthen the Ministry of Justice’s authority in the sphere of adjusting Ukraine’s legislation that of the European Union, the government with its decision broadened the functions and renewed the staff of the Inter-Departmental Coordinating Council on Adjusting Ukraine’s Legislation to the One of the European Union created at the Ministry of Justice. Its staff was supplemented with first deputy and deputy heads of 34 ministries, departments, and committees. Oleksandr Lavrynovych was appointed its head. According to this decision, the Inter-Departmental Council’s decrees made within its terms of reference will be obligatory for the ministries and other central executive bodies. The Ministry of Justice will provide progress reports on its work on adjusting Ukraine’s legislation to the one of the European Union for the government’s meetings’ consideration on quarterly basis.