OPINION ON ENSURING TRANSPARENCY OF INFORMATION ON FINANCE ACTIVITY AND CHANGES TO THE TAX CODE OF UKRAINE OF PUBLIC ASSOCIATIONS AND OF THE USE OF INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Venice Commission Opinion By Richard Clayton QC

Introduction

By letter of 14 December 2017, the Chair of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly requested the Venice Commission to prepare an Opinion on compliance with the Council of Europe standards of the draft law of Ukraine “on introducing changes to some legislative acts to ensure public transparency of information on finance activity of public associations and of the use of international technical assistance” (draft law No. 6674) and of the draft law “on introducing changes to the Tax Code of Ukraine to ensure public transparency of the financing of public associations and of the use of international technical assistance” (draft law No. 6675) (CDL-REF(2018)005 and CDL-REF(2018)004 respectively). In accordance with standing practice, it was decided that the Venice Commission prepare the Opinion jointly with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR).

Mr Richard Clayton, Mr Jørgen Steen Sørensen and Mr Vardan Poghosyan acted as rapporteurs for this Joint Opinion. Mr David Goldberger, Ms Katerina Hadzi-Miceva Evans, Ms Muatar Khaydarova and Ms Alice Thomas were appointed as legal experts for the OSCE/ODIHR.

On 30-31 January 2018, a delegation composed of Mr Richard Clayton and Mr Vardan Poghosyan, on behalf of the Venice Commission, accompanied by Mr Michael Janssen from the Secretariat, and Mr Marcin Walecki, Head of the Democratization Department of the OSCE/ODIHR, visited Kyiv and met with representatives of a large number of relevant authorities, civil society, international organisations and foreign donors. This Joint Opinion takes into account the information obtained during the above-mentioned visit.

The present Joint Opinion was discussed at the Sub-Commission on Fundamental Rights (Venice, 15 March 2018) and was subsequently adopted by the Venice Commission at its 114th Plenary Session (Venice, 16-17 March 2018).

The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR remain at the disposal of the Ukrainian authorities for any further assistance that they may require.

A copy of the full opinion is here.  

16 March 2018