CoE willing to join work on special tribunal for Russia – Ukraine’s permanent representative
Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Borys Tarasyuk has said that the Secretariat of the Council of Europe is willing to participate in the development of the essential documentation required to establish a special tribunal for Russia. This initiative is expected to facilitate the process.
Tarasyuk said this in an exclusive commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent in Strasbourg.
He believes that the Secretariat's previous experience in establishing the Register of Losses in record time in 2023 may facilitate this.
“At the most recent meeting of the coordination group in Vienna, which proved highly productive, Ukraine committed to developing a roadmap. Namely, what the next steps and timeframe will be outlined. But a little more than two weeks have passed, so it hasn't been presented yet,” Tarasyuk said.
According to the diplomatic mission’s head, before the next meeting, which is to be held in Riga after November 20, the Ukrainian side should prepare another document: a draft declaration outlining the main elements of the future tribunal.
“The most significant point of agreement among the more than 40 experts from various countries is that the tribunal model will be established through an agreement with the Council of Europe. And the basis of the tribunal's charter will be a project developed by the Council of Europe's secretariat,” Tarasyuk explained.
According to him, the further functioning of the tribunal and the mechanism of its work should also be developed by the Secretariat.
“How exactly it will function, what administrative and financial levers it will have, who will do it and how, is also a matter for the Council of Europe, which should prepare, as in the case of the Register of Damages, an extended partial agreement. As was the case with the Register of Damages, the Council of Europe should prepare an extended partial agreement. This is the standard practice of the Council of Europe. This matter remains unresolved, but the expertise of the Council of Europe's Secretariat is of considerable assistance in this regard,” he said.
According to Tarasyuk, the most optimistic option is to reach final agreements and transfer the cases to the Secretariat at the end of this year.
“I believe that an optimistic scenario will be to complete [the issue on] the tribunal before the end of this year, while a pessimistic scenario will be in the first half of next year, assuming there is sufficient political will to address all elements. This means documentary completion. The main thing here is to reach a final agreement between the leading stakeholders. These are the G7, the European Union and Ukraine, of course. No one will decide without Ukraine,” he emphasized.
After the coordination group reaches agreements in principle, the process of documenting will no longer be so time-consuming, the diplomat noted.
“Here we must praise the work of the Council's secretariat, which has already shown its best when working on the Register of Damages. The Register was completed in record time, it took several months. From the autumn of 2022 to May 2023. And the whole process took place on the platform of the Council of Europe with the active participation of the Ukrainian delegation and the Secretariat,” the head of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission said.
In addition, the recently appointed Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, has identified five areas of focus related to Ukraine among the priorities of his tenure, including the establishment of a compensation mechanism and the creation of a special tribunal.
“This signifies that the secretariat is tasked with undertaking constructive work. We just need to make political decisions,” Tarasiuk emphasized.
As reported by Ukrinform, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Anton Korynevych said that the format of creating a special tribunal on the basis of a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe is the most promising.
Photo: Representation of Ukraine to the Council of Europe