Yurii Lutsenko: "We will continue to reform the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and improve the efficiency of the agency's activity with the Council of Europe and experts"

In December 2018, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine launched an initiative backed by the Council of Europe entitled "Organizational Analysis of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine". The purpose of the project is to lay the foundations for organizational and operational efficiency in the Prosecutor General's Office activity and to implement the most successful international experience. It was announced on Thursday, December 20, 2018, by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yurii Lutsenko during a joint meeting with the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Morten Enberg.

 Over the next few months, leading experts in the field of organizational consulting will work on this task, in particular, experts from the international company PwC, involved in the Council of Europe. The experts will conduct an independent operational diagnosis and develop a practical plan for the implementation of the recommendations.

 "Two and a half years ago we started structural reforms and over the years brought the activity of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to the European standard," said Yurii Lutsenko, aing that this work cannot be completed without the analysis of the relevant specialists.

 "The key areas of their work, or rather of our joint work, will be strategic planning and management of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, the organizational structure, the existing work processes and the current operational load of employees, the processes of assessing the performance of the GPO" - informed the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

 Yurii Lutsenko noted that he expects the comparison between our structure and the best world practice after the first wave of reform. He expects a recommendation on what the effective structure, the prosecutors' assessment and the interaction between the central office and the regional and local prosecutor`s offices should be.

 Morten Enberg, the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, said that this initiative is an integral part of the joint Action Plan of the Council of Europe and Ukraine. Organizational analysis is being implemented within the framework of the project "Continued support to the criminal justice reform in Ukraine". Its implementation is an important part of the Strategy for the reform of justice for 2015-2020 and the Roadmap for the reform of the prosecutor's office.

  "We are glad that we can support the provision of practical and useful recommendations that will contribute to positive changes in Ukraine. We highly value the attitude of the Prosecutor General's Office for cooperation. After all, the openness and readiness for implementation of the initiative are mandatory prerequisites for our joint project. I am convinced that by joint efforts we will succeed in this project and in all cooperation", - said Morten Enberg.

 Reference:

 The Council of Europe Action Plan 2018-2021 for Ukraine is a strategic document that defines the areas of cooperation and assistance from the organization. Further reform of the prosecutor's office is one of the priority areas identified in the Action Plan.

 The strategy for reforming the judiciary, judicial and related legal institutes for 2015-2020 was approved by the Decree of the President of Ukraine dated May 20, 2015 (hereinafter - Strategy for the reform of justice for 2015-2020).

 The Roadmap for the reform of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine was elaborated in September 2017 by the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine in conjunction with the European Union Advisory Mission for the Reform of the Civil Security Sector in Ukraine with the participation of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, the Council of Europe, DG NEAR/Ukrainian Support Group.

 The document identifies priority areas for improving the activity of the prosecutor's office, taking into account the Strategy for the Reform of Justice for 2015-2020 and the recommendations of the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO).

Main Department for International Legal Cooperation