Now that everyone has seen Mezhyhirya 2.0, “apartments in Moscow”, characters like Tatarov and Galushchenko in power, it’s time to acknowledge that in 2019 there was a revenge of Anti-Maidan with all the corresponding consequences.
The corruption scandal in Zelensky’s close circle somehow pushed the project of the new Civil Code into the background. Unfortunately, this is no less of a problem because, in the form in which Speaker Stefanchuk is pushing it, we will get a value-based revenge with a return decades back to times of citizen lawlessness and state control over private life.
Such approaches have nothing in common with European values and the slogans spoken by the country’s leadership, shamelessly knocking on the Europeans’ doors and demanding to accept us into the EU without reforms.
Today, during the discussion “The Draft of the New Civil Code of Ukraine: Legal Risks and the Need for Significant Refinement” in “Kyivinform”, I emphasized the unacceptability of adopting it in its current form.
First of all, such a serious document – over 800 pages and almost 2000 articles – requires lengthy public discussions with various stakeholders so that it is understood and supported by society, that it meets our Eurointegration aspirations and demands of the time, rather than causing public unrest. It was maximally incorrect to prepare it under the table and push it through as a directive.
When it comes to correcting all the wild norms of this document, I do not see how the People’s Deputies can systematically accomplish this. The very logic embedded in the draft code is strange. All these things about civility, which permeate the entire document and lack operational definition but embed evaluative judgments, are nonsense for law. Such innovation leans more towards the Russian “scruples” than to a liberal Europe.
Besides, the document is filled with unacceptable norms about unscrupulous acquisition of property, family relations, contains dozens of steps back in the protection of children’s and general human rights, and corruption risks. And all this was voted in the first reading.
I have already reached out to our colleagues from the European Commission and various European projects that are currently assisting Ukraine in the field of Eurointegration, with the question of whether they had the opportunity to analyze the document, and if they have any specific proposals, opinions, and warnings. Currently, they are still familiarizing themselves with this project and analyzing it. I think, after such an analysis, the sensible part of society will gain a strong ally in our partners.
At the same time, we should understand that a large part of the civil code in the EU countries is governed not by directives and regulations, but by certain traditions and national law. Therefore, for some matters, we will not receive clear recommendations and must decide independently. That is why it is so important for all who disagree with returning to the past to unite in order to prevent a green Taliban in Ukraine.
