Only candidates who have confirmed their competence, integrity and professional ethics and received high scores for these criteria would be chosen to the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

This was emphasized by the Chairman of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine Serhii Koziakov in the framework of his meetings with the European counterparts in Brussels on July 6-7.

During the working visit to euroinstitutions, S.Koziakov met with the Director General of the DG “Justice and Consumers” T.Astola, the Permanent Representative of Denmark to the EU K.Jørgensen, the Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the EU R.Silberberg, representatives of the European Commission and the European External Action Service. The Chairman of High Qualifications Commission of Judges also spoke at the round table on judicial reform in Ukraine with the participation of experts from leading Brussels-based think tanks.

The main purpose of the visit was to inform the representatives of the European institutions and the EU member states about the progress in reforming of the judicial system of Ukraine and the state of play with the creation of a new Supreme Court of Ukraine which will be formed on a competitive basis for the first time in the history. Special attention during the meetings was paid as well to the issue of the implementation of anti-corruption legal proceedings in Ukraine.

"For the first time Ukraine is choosing the future judges of the Supreme Court through the competition procedure. The regarded procedure is held by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine and this institution is responsible for its outcome. At the same time, it should be emphasized, that the whole Ukraine is taking part in this process - everyone could get acquainted with the candidates' files, which are placed in the free access on the website, and provide the available information on the candidates to the Commission. There is an online broadcast of all stages of the contest, which is unprecedented. The integrity of the candidates will be ensured by the psychologists and civil society activists, the precedent that has no analogues in the world. Their materials, as well as the materials from 20 other sources, will influence the final rating of candidates", - emphasized Serhii Koziakov.

Representatives of the European Union agreed that the integrity of judges and the transparency of the competition procedures currently provided by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges are one of the key factors of the success of judicial reform. They also stressed that an effective and transparent judicial system would contribute to further progress of Ukraine in the fight against corruption.

The EU side welcomed Ukraine's significant success in reforming the judiciary and expressed its readiness to provide further institutional and financial support for this process.