Heads of diplomatic missions of the European Union (Matti Maasikas, Antti Hartikainen), the North Atlantic Alliance (Vineta Kleine) and the United States (Christina Quinn) in Ukraine call on the Verkhovna Rada to pass in the second reading the law on the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine, reports Interfax-Ukraine.
According to an article written by Western diplomats, the special service will focus on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and protection of state secrets after the successful completion of the reform, while losing its powers of pre-trial investigation.
"The central element of the reform envisaged in the bill is the gradual removal of the SBU's powers of pre-trial investigation. By doing so, the SBU will become a special service that focuses its work on counterintelligence rather than law enforcement. Investigative powers will be transferred to law enforcers who specialize specifically in the investigation of crimes and whose activities are subject to closer supervision in comparison to the activities of special services," the article said on Monday.
It also notes that some of the most important changes in the draft law include the introduction of a temporary system of parliamentary oversight, which will operate until the creation of a supervisory body - a special parliamentary committee, as well as reducing the staff of the secret service, demilitarization of many staff positions of the Service.
"Meanwhile, the bill leaves a number of issues open. In particular, these are extremely broad powers of counterintelligence, allowing to violate basic human rights and freedoms; preservation of the right to use physical force, special means and firearms; preservation of temporary detention facilities; lack of certainty of the procedure for attestation of SBU employees, as well as the possibility of appointing dismissed SBU employees without competition to positions in other agencies", - diplomats note.
They stress that these shortcomings require improvement, especially at the stage of implementing key provisions of the law to strengthen judicial control and strengthen oversight mechanisms. Still, this can not be an obstacle to the adoption of the law by Parliament.
"We call on all political parties in the Verkhovna Rada to seize this historic opportunity and pass this law without delay," the Western diplomats summarize.
