Media: IMF inflexible about selection of judges for the Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not been flexible regarding the selection of judges for the Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine, Apostrophe news outlet reports.
Disagreements between the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada and the representatives of the IMF and the Venice Commission became an obstacle to the preparation of the corresponding bill for the second reading, the news agency writes. The IMF insists that the final word in the choice of judges should remain with the international council of experts. The Ukrainian Parliament wants to assign this function to the High Judicial Selection Commission.
Many of the deputies of Ukrainian Parliament consider the demands of the European institutions unconstitutional. "The IMF flipped us off. They said: either we accept their option or nothing. They do not want to discuss anything more," the source of the news agency stated.
The creation of an Anti-Corruption Court is one of the IMF’s main requirements for providing Ukraine with the next tranche of its loan. The Fund agreed to provide $17.5 billion to Kyiv over four years to assists with infrastructure development.
In March 2015, the first tranche in the amount of $5 billion was transferred. In August of the same year, the second tranche of $1.7 billion was released. In 2016 and 2017 Ukraine received two tranches of $1 billion each. The Ukrainian authorities expect to receive another tranche this year but the representatives of Kyiv names different times.