The EU-Ukraine bilateral meeting on Section 24 "Justice, Freedom and Security" takes place in Brussels as part of the official screening of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law.

The Ukrainian delegation is headed by Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine and Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

The delegation includes Director of the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Provision Oleksandr Baranov.

During the meeting, Oleksandr Baranov:

● presented the system of free legal aid: the strategy, structure, types of legal services provided, categories of people entitled to these services, ways of applying for legal services; the mechanism for engaging lawyers cooperating with the free legal aid system to defend or represent the interests of citizens, including foreigners.

● spoke about institutional reforms: expanding the list of categories of subjects entitled to free legal aid, pilot projects to involve psychologists in criminal proceedings involving minors through free legal aid centres; the "Restorative Justice Programme involving minors who are suspects or accused of committing a criminal offence"; development of remote legal aid services and improvement of client-oriented approaches;

● told about the norms of national legislation that comply with EU legislation, as well as about the conditions and possibility of implementing the provisions of Council Directive 2002/8/EC on improving access to justice in cross-border disputes by establishing minimum common rules on legal aid in such disputes.

● informed about the nearest plans: supplementing the quality standards for the provision of free legal aid with a separate provision on the specifics of defence in criminal proceedings of minors; introducing mechanisms for pre-trial settlement of disputes in civil cases (divorce cases, inheritance cases), in particular through mediation; simplifying access to free legal aid: filing a request for free legal aid from a smartphone, etc.

Background information 

Screening is the first stage of the negotiation process, during which the European Commission, together with a candidate country for EU membership, analyses the compliance of the national legislation of this candidate country with EU legislation (EU acquis). Bilateral screening meetings are an important source of information for the European Commission on the candidate country's readiness for EU membership.

It is during the screening process that Ukraine's commitments on the path to EU membership are determined, which are then recorded in the European Commission's screening reports. This document will finally determine the level of compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law and the scope of further work. The screening reports also identify the priorities of key reforms, as well as the steps that need to be taken starting from opening clusters.