Members of the selection committee also said Wednesday that the process was complete and that they could not legally revise their choice of Tsyvinskyi, as the government has demanded. They added that the cabinet has no legal authority to reject their nominee and is violating the law.
But at its Wednesday meeting — the last before a July 31 deadline to appoint Tsyvinskyi expires — the Cabinet again refused to confirm him.
The EU had already cut some €1.5 billion in funding for Ukraine in July after the country failed to complete several other required reforms, the Commission spokesperson previously confirmed to POLITICO.
Kyiv also risks delays in its IMF funding if the appointment isn’t finalized. The IMF did not respond to a request for comment.
That Kyiv is refusing to confirm Tsyvinskyi despite the mounting pressure “says a great deal” about the government’s disconnect from both its own citizens and international partners, James Wasserstrom, a U.S. anti-corruption expert and member of the selection commission, told media on Wednesday.
Kyiv’s formal reason for balking — that Tsyvinskyi’s father is a Russian citizen — doesn’t hold water, commission members have said. Tsyvinskyi has held a security clearance for over a decade and hasn’t talked to his father for years.