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The seventh DSC working meeting took place on May 27th-28th, 2017. First day discussions focused on different topics that varied from judicial reform in Ukraine to the UN resolution on good governance. The DSC hosted four speakers from Germany (1), Poland (1) and Ukraine (2) on Saturday.

The first lecture was given by Director of DeJuRe Foundation, lead expert of the Reanimation Package of Reforms group on judicial reform and former judge in the Vinnytsia District Administrative Court Mykhailo Zhernakov. Mr. Zhernakov focused on Ukraine’s judicial reform. He talked about Ukraine’s progress, the amendments that have already taken place and challenges that the country faces. Judicial reform is a crucial reform because no other reform can be effective if the society does not have a fair justice system. Mr. Zhernakov talked about several things: independence of courts and judges, accountability of judges, renewal of the judiciary, and redrafting of a judicial map.

Inna Pidluska, Deputy Executive Director of International Renaissance Foundation and co-founder of Europe XXI Foundation was the second speaker of the day. Ms. Pidluska is a civil society person, she worked in the civil society all her life starting from emerging NGOs in the early 90s.  Ms. Pidluska opened an interesting discussion on Europe’s current challenges to the civil society. She separated her speech into 4 pillars: social welfare and its challenges, social cohesion, post-truth world and current media, and self-identification. The fellows were very engaged in the discussion on world affairs.

The third speaker of the day was Susanne Weber-Mosdorf. Ms. Weber-Mosdorf has an impressive CV: she had a career in the higher German civil service, had several years of senior-level experience in the private finance sector, she was Director-General of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security in Berlin, and she is a former Assistant Director-General – Executive Director of the WHO Office at the European Union. Ms. Weber-Mosdorf gave an interesting lecture on good governance and her insights from her personal experience.

Being able to present and promote your project is now one the most needed skills. That is why the Senior Advisor to the German-Polish-Ukrainian Society Jacek Wojciechowicz prepared a lecture on presentation skills and project promotion. Mr. Wojciechowicz is a Project Director at the Polish National Railways HQ responsible for the contacts with the World Bank Group and IFIs. He is a former Chief Ethics Officer for the PKP S.A. and the PKP Group. He is also a Chief Economist at the Polish Institute of Directors, responsible for economic analysis and media contacts. Mr. Wojciechowicz is currently teaching at the Warsaw School of Economics (Postgraduate Studies for Culture Sector Managers). Mr. Wojciechowicz shared his amazing experience, gave vivid examples and tips on how to present and promote a project. The fellows absolutely loved his presentation.

The second day started with inspirational breakfast that was led by Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration Sergiy Petukhov. Sergiy is also a co-founder of the “Crimean Studios” Centre. In his topic, he mainly spoke about the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement with regard to the justice and security system. In particular, he mentioned that justice reforms are the long-term one, and their implementation involves not only reorganisation of courts but also professional legal education, effective mechanisms of human rights protection, civil security etc. As the presentation contained many legal and technical details on Association Agreement, participants took active part during the discussion and learned much on peculiarities of EU justice standards.

After that, the DSC Senior Fellows Balázs Jarábik and Jens Adam worked with the scholars on their projects.

You can find the programme here.