Anticorruption Council under Moldovan PM convenes into meeting

Chisinau, 07 November /MOLDPRES/ – At the second meeting of the Council for the coordination of anticorruption and reform policies with the Prime Minister, it was presented the updated concept of evaluation of judges and prosecutors. It was elaborated and adapted according to the recommendations made by the Venice Commission in its preliminary opinion on the reform of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Prosecutor's Office, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

The concept provides for the creation of three new structures for the implementation of the reform:

1. Monitoring Mission – will select the members of the Evaluation Commission and monitor its activity. The Monitoring Mission will consist of 07 members, of which five international specialists and two representatives from civil society.

2. Evaluation Commission – for the extraordinary evaluation of judges and prosecutors, which involves checking the integrity and ethics, as well as their professionalism.

3. Special Appeal College – will examine the appeals of the justice actors who will not support the extraordinary assessment or will not be promoted.

The evaluation of judges by the instruments described above has as an objective the cleaning of the body of judges and prosecutors of persons without integrity and it is to start in the most important institutions of justice: the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) and Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP).

Prime Minister, Maia Sandu, claims that justice reform remains the number one priority of the Government , of Moldova. “Politicians come and go, but corruption schemes have remained there for three decades. We must stop those who have become accustomed to abusing, stealing, knowing that they will not bear responsibility for it. Those who are afraid of evaluation will leave the system. Less selective justice means less money stolen and more resources in the state budget (BS),” said Maia Sandu.

The Minister of Justice, Olesea Stamate, has said that by the end of next week it will be finalised the draft law.

The Anticorruption Council is a platform for examining systemic and policy issues in the field of preventing and combating corruption and reforming the justice system and for coordinating the efforts between the competent public authorities in order to successfully implement the adopted policies. It met for the first time on 16 September 2019.