The new wording of the law on public service, with the exception of the clause obliging every senior official to speak English or French, came into effect on Sunday, 1 May 2016. The mentioned provision will become effective on 1 January 2018.
The law was adopted on 10 December 2015.
In particular, it :
- provides for a competitive selection for all civil service positions;
- differentiates between political posts and civil service. People’s deputies, ministers, their assistants, advisers, press secretaries, maintenance personnel are longer considered public servants;
- contains a list of reasons for dismissal, bans the top category of civil servants from being members of political parties;
- provides for an increase in salaries to officials, at the same time reducing the share of premiums and additional payments in the salary structure of civil servants;
- introduces three instead of six job categories: "A" - the supreme body of public service, "B" - heads of structural divisions and "C" - the rest of civil servants;
- introduces the post of state secretaries in the ministries.
The law says salaries to civil servants can be paid from the state budget and at the expense of the EU programmes, international organizations and other countries.
The EU earlier promised financial support for Ukraine to implement this reform.
The Cabinet of Ministers repeatedly asked the EU to create a donor fund that would pay extra to Ukrainian public servants.