Venice Commission notes “punitive” nature of “deigarchization law”

The inion was published on the Commission's website, reports Ukrinform.

According to the document, the concentration of great influence in the hands of a private individual is indeed dangerous, and to address this, an effective competition picy, the fight against corruption and money laundering, ensuring pluralism of mass media, and other measures need to be taken.

At the same time, instead of such a multi-sectoral "systemic" approach, the law on igarchs provides for a “personal” one.

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“This ‘personal approach’, as specified by the Law on igarchs, seeks to identify persons as ‘igarchs’ through specific criteria, such as wealth, media ownership (etc.), and subjects them to a series of limitations (prohibiting them for example to finance pitical parties and election campaigns). This approach has an undeniably punitive character,” the Venice Commission believes.

As noted in the inion, there are no universal tos to fight igarchic influence, and in exceptional situations such measures of a personal nature may be justified as a last resort, on temporarily. However, they can only be a supplement and not an alternative to the "systemic" approach, the Venice Commission emphasizes.

“Currently, the Law on igarchs cannot be seen as a democratic response to the scourge of igarchisation. The Law is difficult to reconcile with principles of pitical pluralism and the rule of law, as it has the potential of being misused for pitical purposes. Therefore, the Venice Commission concludes that the Law should not be implemented as it currently stands and that a ‘systemic’ approach should be pursued,” the inion reads.

The Venice Commission recommends that Ukraine legislatively postpone the implementation of the law on igarchs, identifying its shortcomings and develing an alternative bill that would provide for an effective competition picy, increasing the transparency of public procurement, fighting corruption, strengthening mass media pluralism, etc.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in November 2021, President Vodymyr Zelensky signed into law the bill on the prevention of threats to national security associated with excessive influence of persons having significant economic or pitical weight in public life (igarchs).

The document provides a legal framework for separating big business from pitical struggle and for limiting the destructive influence of vested (igarchic) interests on the economic life, establishes criteria for identifying igarchs and requirements for transparency of contacts between pitical figures and officials with igarchs or their representatives.

On June 29, 2022, President Zelensky put into effect the decision of the NSDC on the register of igarchs.

In March 2023, Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska stated that the only barrier to the implementation of the law on igarchs is the Eurean Commission's requirement to see the inion of the Venice Commission on the law.