On 11 March 2021, at their 1398th DH meeting, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (Committee) adopted a new decision on Ukraine’s progress in solving the systemic problem of non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic judgments given against the State. In their decision, the Committee exhorted the Ukrainian authorities to take resolute action to resolve the long-standing problem, paying attention to the changes to the 2021 State Budget, which has only distanced Ukraine from comprehensively solving the issue.
In particular, in 2021, expenditures to finance the State Budget Programme 3504040 ‘Measures for the Enforcement of Judicial Decisions Guaranteed by the State’ have been reduced sixfold compared to 2020, making it impossible for the State to pay its debts under thousands of unenforced domestic judgments. In January 2021, within the communication to the Committee of the state of execution by Ukraine of the ECtHR judgments on the matter, strategic lawyers of CF ‘Right to Protection’ submitted observations with the Committee, emphasizing the critical lack of funding to fully cover the expenditures for enforcement of domestic judgments, including those concerning the payment of pension arrears to IDPs and residents of the temporarily occupied territories.
According to the response of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Government noted the interest of CF ‘Right to Protection’ to the non-enforcement problem (especially, with regard to judgments on pension payments for IDPs and residents of the temporarily occupied territories, as well as conflict-related losses), stressing that the State is focused on finding a long-lasting solution to this problem, which gives hope for the change of the current state of affairs.
Finally, the Committee deeply deplored the dramatic decrease in funding of the State Budgetary Programme 3504040, adding that it ‘could be seen as an indication of the overall lack of political will to ensure the effectiveness of the system of domestic enforcement of judgments.’

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