⁍ The G7 of the world’s biggest economies said it was alarmed by the rollback of reforms in Ukraine.
⁍ The Constitutional Court this week ruled to abolish some anti-corruption laws.
⁍ The court said it saw as excessive the punishment set for false information on officials’ asset declarations.
– The G7 is “alarmed by efforts to undo the anti-corruption reforms that followed the Revolution of Dignity” in Ukraine, the group said in a statement Thursday. “Too much progress has been made, Ukraine must not go back to the past.” Ukraine’s president called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to address “signs that certain entities are trying to revise key parts of the social contract in Ukraine, which provide for zero tolerance for corruption and any form of opacity in public administration,” the presidential office said in a statement, per Reuters. The statement came after Ukraine’s Constitutional Court this week ruled to abolish some anti-corruption laws. The court said it saw as excessive the punishment set for false information on officials’ asset declarations and struck down some critical powers of the key anti-corruption body NAZK, which in turn said the court had destroyed the anti-corruption system. Ukraine’s patchy performance on reforms and tackling entrenched corruption has derailed a $5 billion program agreed in June with the International Monetary Fund at a time its economy is in sharp downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A further deterioration could threaten Ukraine’s prized visa-free access to the European Union countries. The United States, Canada, Britain, the European Union have backed Ukraine with aid and sanctions on Russia after the 2014 Maidan street protests that ousted a Kremlin-backed leader, but repeatedly pressed Kyiv to quicken the pace of reforms.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-court-president/update-1-g7-countries-alarmed-by-ukraine-rolling-back-anti-corruption-reforms-idUSL1N2HK1QC