“SBU reform cannot be considered without the reform of the law enforcement system as a whole”, said Serhii Pun, Deputy Head of the SBU reform, during online discussion of whether pre-trial investigation functions should remain in SBU. The Center for Civil Liberties organized the conference, where MPs and experts were present.

²SBU reform should not be separated from the whole security sector functional changes. The reform should make the law enforcement system more balanced, instead of making it incoherent. In addition, such reform should be gradual and consistent², emphasized Serhii Pun.

At the same time, Serhii Pun turned attention to the international experience during the discussion of whether pre-trial investigation functions in SBU are reasonable. ²If we take Scandinavian model as an example, all special services of Scandinavian countries have investigation units, which means they carry out pre-trial investigations², added the SBU representative.

Such units remain in post-Soviet countries, which, like Ukraine, are also threatened by Russia.

Serhii Pun also believes that SBU reform should follow best European practices, rather than get rid of certain functions such as counterintelligence protection of economy.

He pointed out that draft law on the SBU reform makes it impossible for the SBU officers to be involved into investigations, carried out by other law enforcement agencies. Such situations are frowned upon experts and public sector. The SBU representative noticed that during 2019 the SBU received 7,000 orders from investigating public prosecutors. 64% of the orders did not fall within the SBU jurisdiction, but the SBU staff had to fulfill the tasks by the law.

We remind that the draft law on the Security Service of Ukraine was submitted by the President to the Parliament on March 10. The document contains system innovations which allow the Ukrainian special service to improve its performance. In May, the Verkhovna Rada considered the draft law and sent it for a subsequent reading in committees. Currently, work on the text of the project is underway in the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada with the involvement of expert representatives from international partners and the public sector.