Ukraine needs to introduce legislation establishing an effective mechanism for holding senior officials politically responsible for their decisions, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski has said, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"We need to find a way to write into Ukrainian law and the legal system approaches on how to make these people accountable, but not prosecute them criminally. There is administrative accountability and other types of accountability. If there is evidence then criminal responsibility is possible, but we believe that starting immediately with criminal prosecution is not a proper approach in these situations," Jan Tombinski said.
According to him, the European Union hopes that Ukraine will continue to reform its judicial system in order to ensure balance of power. "We know what kind of judicial system was inherited. There needs to be balance between the powers of the prosecutors and the powers of lawyers and judges. There needs to be a solution in the case of ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Lutsenko and other imprisoned government officials. This isn’t just a matter of certain individuals, Ukraine needs to show how important this is. It’s a matter of systemic decisions and approaches," he said.
"People with political responsibility make decisions that lead to certain economic and financial consequences not only for the state budget but also for other market participants. They assume risks when they make decisions that may be unpopular," he added.
The EU ambassador gave the example of political decision making in Europe. "For example, Germany decided to abandon nuclear energy. Imagine the financial implications of this decision for various companies working in the German energy sector. But when people made this decision they weren’t afraid that they would be imprisoned for preventing the development of nuclear energy and opening opportunities for other sectors, because this is political responsibility and political accountability. There are clear rules for making such decisions," the diplomat stressed.
On November 1, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski visited former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the Kharkiv hospital. He replaced former Ambassador Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira as head of the EU Delegation on September 1.
