State Bureau of Investigation Reset and Merit-Based Prosecution: Committee Approved Unified Anti-Corruption Strategy

The Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy took a step towards unifying legislation. Recall that the parliament was considering three versions of the Anti-Corruption Strategy: main № 15230, government № 15230-1, and alternative № 15230-2. Each of these documents claimed the role of the basic strategy that should define Ukraine's direction towards the EU and NATO.

After lengthy discussions, the specialized committee decided on the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026–2030. A compromise was necessary not only to continue the reform but also to fulfill the conditions of the Ukraine Facility and receive funding from the EU.

The committee's decision was unanimous: instead of three projects, a revised and unified draft law №15230-d is submitted for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada.

Formula “D”: what was included in the unified document?

Draft №15230-d is the result of daily two-month work by the NACP, the committee, and international experts. The main change compared to previous versions is maximum compliance with EU benchmarks in the “Foundations” cluster, confirmed in June 2026.

The document includes:

Reform of the appointment of the Prosecutor General

The procedure should become transparent and merit-based. During the Committee meeting, a discussion arose about the depth of the reform.

The committee chair Anastasia Radina insisted on introducing a full competitive selection for the Prosecutor General. She noted that although there is currently insufficient support in the parliamentary hall for this model, she will submit relevant amendments for the second reading.

Some strategy projects № 15230 envisaged involving a competition commission that would provide recommendations to the President of Ukraine regarding potential candidates.

Currently, the Committee decided to keep a general formulation about transparency in the document.

The reform envisages not only changing the appointment procedure but also regulating dismissal. The Strategy plans to legislatively define clear grounds for expressing no confidence in the Prosecutor General by the Verkhovna Rada.

Clear grounds for submitting a dismissal proposal from an administrative position should be prescribed to minimize risks of informal pressure.

The procedure must comply with the Joint Statement of the European Commission leadership and the Government of Ukraine dated December 11, 2025.

Alongside the Prosecutor General's reform, the Committee supported resuming competitions for prosecutor positions in the Office of the Prosecutor General and regional prosecutor offices. Strengthening the role of prosecutorial self-government bodies in selecting key personnel is also planned.

SBI Reset

The reform of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) within the Anti-Corruption Strategy is one of the most discussed “European benchmarks.” This is not just changes but a full-scale “reset” of the institution.

Regarding the SBI, the unified Strategy decided to add the introduction of a legislatively defined merit-based selection procedure. It will include integrity and professionalism checks involving independent experts appointed by international donors.

In the competition commission for selecting the SBI Director, independent experts will have a decisive vote. This provision was subject to discussions (the government draft proposed limiting their influence), but the Committee supported the wording that literally corresponds to European benchmarks.

As previously reported by the “Judicial-Legal Newspaper”, the participation of international experts in competition commissions for selecting the leadership of the State Bureau of Investigation, National Police, and judicial governance bodies remains quite uncertain.

The issue of international experts' participation in forming state bodies with decisive voting rights is already a subject of constitutional dispute.

Currently, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is considering a constitutional submission by 56 people's deputies regarding the constitutionality of several provisions of laws regulating the activities of key state institutions. In particular, norms of laws on the High Council of Justice, High Qualification Commission of Judges, High Anti-Corruption Court, NABU, NACP, SACPO, State Bureau of Investigation, Accounting Chamber, as well as certain provisions of the Customs Code of Ukraine, are being challenged.

The Strategy also decided to include mandatory personnel certification. It provides for mandatory periodic certification of all SBI personnel regarding integrity and professional compliance. Representatives of the public and international partners will be involved in this process.

A system of periodic external audits of the Bureau's activities is introduced. Importantly, a negative conclusion of such an audit is officially recognized as grounds for early dismissal of the SBI top management.

The Strategy requires a clear focus of the SBI on investigating torture, illegal detentions, and other official crimes in the field of justice. To this end, it plans to develop the analytical capacity of the body and transition to planning according to the European SOCTA system.

Judicial Reform

Judicial reform was one of the most debated issues at the meeting, as it is directly linked to the EU benchmarks of the “Foundations” cluster.

The Committee agreed to include provisions that meet EU requirements, namely improving the selection of Supreme Court judges. The procedure should become more transparent and based on meritocracy principles.

An improved open competitive selection process for members of the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges is also envisaged.

Independent experts delegated by international partners will be temporarily involved in forming the HCJ and HQCJ, having voting rights during selection.

Additionally, the principle is enshrined that all vacant positions in judicial governance bodies must be filled within terms ensuring their uninterrupted functioning.

ARMA: from exclusion to central block

An interesting point was that in the initial NACP draft, the issue of the Agency for the Recovery and Management of Assets (ARMA) was almost not covered. During the July 15 meeting, it was decided to add a whole block regarding ARMA, which includes:

• Effectiveness of the asset management system.
• Full implementation of the register of seized assets (to see the entire fate of the asset and statistics).
• Control mechanisms over debt under management contracts, which is currently a rather painful issue, considering the debt of UAH 121.4 million under 11 contracts at the time of the report.

Customs and Tax: delineation of functions

The Committee supported the position on excluding provisions granting customs law enforcement functions.

The legal logic is clear here: to avoid duplication of jurisdiction with the Economic Security Bureau and prevent a model where one body is both service and punitive.

In the taxation sphere, the Strategy focuses on automation: blocking tax invoices should become transparent, and the principle of “silent consent” in case of missed deadlines for document review by the tax authority should become the norm.

Conflict of Interest and “Apparent Conflict”

The Strategy proposes a new concept for Ukrainian law: “apparent conflict of interest”.

This is a situation where an outside observer gets the impression of private interest influence, although there is none.

Although the HLEU sees risks of legal uncertainty in this, the committee left this provision as a tool for fostering integrity. Also, the NACP receives exclusive competence regarding explanations on conflict of interest issues, including for judges, which has already sparked discussion about judicial independence.

Public Monitoring

Instead of vague reports, a three-level system is introduced: problem — expected result — measure.

An important change proposed by deputies is the creation of a public interface of the monitoring information system. This will allow citizens to see in real time whether a fully implemented measure led to a real solution of the problem.

During the meeting, it was emphasized that the law must guarantee not just the existence of the NACP's internal monitoring system but a public online dashboard.

The Anti-Corruption Committee recommended adopting as a basis the unified draft Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026–2030 № 15230-d. At stake is not only EU accession but also receiving about EUR 400 million under the Ukraine Facility program. The process moves into the session review phase, where speed must combine with quality.

Simultaneously with approving the Strategy, amendments to the specialized Law “On Prevention of Corruption” regarding coordination and monitoring mechanisms will be developed. Draft № 15230-d will be voted on quickly due to financial pressure from the Ukraine Facility. However, the real legal discussion will unfold around the State Anti-Corruption Program (SACP), which the Cabinet must approve within 6 months after the law. The program must contain specific names of those responsible, funds, and deadlines that will force the system to work not “on paper” but for results.

Currently, “Judicial and Legal Newspaper” awaits the official publication of the full text of the unified draft № 15230-d on the Verkhovna Rada website and continues to closely monitor developments in specialized working groups.

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