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The Justice, Freedom and Security (JFS) sector is governed by specific Action Plans and Scoreboards, the first of which was approved in 2001. In 2006 the plan was revised and as of November 2006 is close to completion. This new JFS Action Plan builds upon the previous one while, at the same time, aims to deepen the cooperation in these sectors. As this Action plan has been adopted by both the EU and Ukraine, the European Commission will prepare the first draft Scoreboard, which will list the measures, actions and priorities for the implementation of the Plan.
The annual timetable foresees the adoption of the Action Plan no later than the end of the current year, which will allow for further negotiations regarding the Scoreboard in early 2007. The UEPLAC IV was asked to assist in the preparation of this Scoreboard. According to expert analysis, negotiations and ongoing work, it is expected that this process could take up to three months.
To this end the Project’s expert team agreed to assist in defining the priorities as well as the actions and measures required in this sector, which assisted in the Scoreboard’s compilation and definition.
More detailed input from the Project, and the form of advice provided, will be dependent on the needs of the Beneficiary. Owing to this, the report shall contain a specific section which will list a number of activities and actions applicable across the board, which would then be fine tuned.
Besides its horizontal work in supporting and advising the SDLA, the Project will also define the specific sectors for its action bearing in mind the activities of other donors in the sphere.
UEPLAC IV aims at ensuring the prioritisation of legislative approximation work in the sphere of the JFS, giving due respect to other sectors of the EU-Ukraine Action Plan and the National Programme for Legal Approximation.
The work in the sphere of Justice, Freedom and Security will assist in the realisation of the Project’s overall goals. Particularly, with the reference to the JFS-AP, the major strategic aims and challenges for the Project would be:
- Strengthening the partnership and practical cooperation between the European Union, its Member States and Ukraine in the field of Justice, Freedom and Security;
- supporting Ukraine’s effort in consolidating democracy, protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms and especially, the promotion and strengthening the stability and effectiveness of state institutions and the Rule of Law;
- continuing work with the Ukrainian authorities to ensure application of principles of the Rule of Law, independence and efficiency of judiciary including access to justice and good governance;
- ensuring ratification and full implementation of the international instruments of particular importance in the sphere of Justice and Home Affairs;
- continuing to establish an appropriate legislative framework for effective co-operation in the sphere of Justice, Freedom and Security, in line with the international and EU standards and working towards ensuring efficient implementation and application of these standards;
- Enhancing institution building efforts, involving, where necessary, civil society including relevant NGOs and private sector actors.
In the sphere of the JFS, the Project’s objective is to ensure support and assistance in the implementation of the revised Action Plan on Freedom, Security and Justice and its Scoreboard.
To achieve this objective, the UEPLAC’s expert team will contribute to:
- ensuring an independent approach to the prioritisation of actions and measures within the Scoreboard for the implementation of the revised Action Plan on JFS;
- ensuring compliance with the needs and requirement of the acquis of the new draft legislation introduced under the JFS AP;
- facilitating and supporting synergies and coordination between different actors involved in the implementation of the Action Plan by both Ukrainian as well as international, national, governmental and non-governmental actors in the JFS sphere
- familiarising the Project recipients with the EU best practices in the JFS sphere, including working towards development of their administrative capacity;
- Facilitating dialogue with the Civil Society Organisations active in the relevant JFS’s sectors.
More specifically, the objectives for cooperation and implementation in this sphere are:
- Freedom: improving management of migration, including asylum and fight against illegal migration;
- Security: combating terrorism and organised crime including, which includes law enforcement cooperation (in particular fighting human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, drugs and other restricted or prohibited goods, corruption, document fraud, money laundering and other illegal activities);
- Justice: judicial reform in order to ensure independence, impartiality and efficiency and strengthening EU-Ukraine judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.
The UEPLAC expects to provide high level expert assistance in the preparation of the JFS Scoreboard in a coherent and consistent manner as well as to assist in effective prioritisation of relevant measures. The Project also aims at contributing to Ukrainian authorities’ better understanding and ownership of policies, practices and administrative standards in the sphere of the JFS.
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