KYIV

U.S. President Joe Biden led a drive by Western states to press Ukraine to make good on pledges to implement reforms quickly to key institutions, with an overhaul of the ex-Soviet state’s judiciary the top priority.

Diplomatic sources quoted by the Ukrainian news website nv.ua said Biden had been forthright in telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a telephone conversation that he had to follow through on longstanding promises to root out corruption and proceed with comprehensive judicial reform.

The reports of Biden’s calls to action coincided with news that the European Union was making the second part of a loan agreed last summer contingent on Ukraine following through on those judicial reforms.

The diplomatic sources said reforms were a key part of a conversation in which Biden agreed to host Biden in July and pledged to support Ukraine against threats from Russia — with due account of a recent Russian troop buildup on Ukraine’s border and Moscow’s announcement that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline taking gas from Russia to Germany was nearing completion. Ukraine sees the pipeline as a threat to its security.

“They spoke about an in-person meeting, of the need for reforms, about a NATO membership action plan (for Ukraine) , about the threat to national security from Nord Stream 2 and about continued U.S. support for Ukraine in its confrontation with Russian aggression,” nv.ua quoted a source as saying.

The source referred to comments by Zelensky’s office saying that Biden had noted the Ukrainian president’s “leadership in implementing… fundamental reforms in in the country”. Washington, it said, was primarily interested in ensuring transparency in the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office overseeing major crime investigations.

“Whatever was said in these comments about the conversation with the U.S. leader, Zelensky intends to undertake further reforms and Washington will watch over these with an eagle eye,” nv.ua quoted the source as saying. “For instance, will Zelensky’s office carry out a transparent search for the post of prosecutor of the specialised office?”

UKRAINIAN DISAPPOINTMENT OVER PIPELINE

In an interview published this week, Zelensky expressed disappointment with Biden’s decision to drop sanctions against Nord Stream 2 — now more than 95 percent complete — and sought  face-to-face talks with Biden before his June 16 meeting withs Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

Zelensky has taken a tougher stand on Russia since taking office and says recovering territory held by pro-Moscow separatists is possible only with NATO membership — a notion rejected out of hand in Moscow.

In its assessment of  reforms, the European Union said the 600 million-euro loan ($731 million),  second tranche of a 1.2 billion-euro package to help Ukraine weather the COVID-19 pandemic, would only be paid out once promised reforms to the judicial system were implemented.

Kataryna Maternova, Ukraine’s support group head in the European Commission, said the government was aware of conditions the EU had set for the disbursement of further funds.

“The main one is the reform of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges and the High Council of Justice,” she told reporters.

Ukraine’s international partners are pushing for an overhaul of the procedures for appointing members of Ukraine’s 21-member High Council of Justice, which has overall responsibility for recruiting and disciplining judges, as well as reform of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ), the body it appoints to recruit judges. The Council of Judges, the Ukrainian judiciary’s highest body, has until now elected its members by secret ballot.

The head of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, a body set up to help states bring legislative and other bodies into line with international standards, also told Zelensky to accelerate reforms.

“The judiciary reform must be comprehensive. The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has been working on this reform in Ukraine for decades already, without real success,” Gianni Buquicchio told a conference in Kyiv after meeting the president.

HELPING COMBAT THE EFFECTS OF COVID

Ukraine signed the loan agreement with the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, in July 2020, within the framework of the exclusive macro-financial assistance programme, which is provided for 10 countries to overcome the negative consequences of the pandemic.

In December last year, the country received the first 600 million euro tranche of the loan. The European Commission said the payment would contribute to macro-financial stability in Ukraine.

The EU will also require Ukraine to meet the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demands that it ensure the independence of the central bank. The Fund has also stressed the need for judicial reform.

Zelensky has said he supports the central bank’s independence, but its highly respected Chairman, Yakiv Smolii, was forced to resign last July. His departure was followed by the ousting of many of its board members, sparking concerns the institution’s independence was under threat.

Ukrainian officials say they now have an understanding with the IMF on issues regarding the central bank and a presidential adviser said Ukraine was likely to secure its next tranche of IMF credits in September.

The IMF paid out $2.1 billion after approving a loan programme last June, but a Fund mission ended in February leaving unresolved a decision on further payouts in the standby arrangement of about $5 billion.