Moldovan President on progress in justice reform

The cleansing of the judicial system must continue and be completed to ensure the proper functioning of justice in the Republic of Moldova. President Maia Sandu made the statement at a TV8 broadcast. The head of state said that so far, about140 judges have left the system, most of them having integrity issues.


'The system means people. What we are seeing is a cleansing of the judicial system, a process that I believe is underway. About 140 judges have left the system in the last four years. I don't want to say that they all left because of integrity issues, but I am sure that the majority did leave for this reason. The process is not yet complete. We must mandatorily continue and finish this process,' Maia Sandu stated.


The President also mentioned dissatisfaction with the Vetting Commission's activity due to the lengthy process, which has become cumbersome. After the evaluation of judges, the vetting of prosecutors should follow, Maia Sandu noted. 


'I am not satisfied with the activity of this commission which is supposed to conduct vetting because things have dragged on there as well. I had hoped that the process would conclude with the judges, and the evaluation would begin with the prosecutors. But on the other hand, I understand those who say they have been waiting for a year for this evaluation to take place,' the President said.


Maia Sandu also said that if she were a prosecutor, she would engage directly in this fight, but the responsibilities of the head of state do not allow her to do so.  

Maia Sandu emphasized the necessity of cleansing the justice system to ensure its proper functioning. At the same time, the head of state stressed that efficiency in justice will increase when new people enter the system.


'We have to cleanse the system, and only then will the system begin to function, though not immediately. We will finish the cleansing and then need to bring in new people through the National Institute of Justice, and then it will take time for these people to learn, and only after that will efficiency improve. This does not mean that nothing can be done, as there are already competent and honest judges and certainly honest prosecutors, and we see some results. But in general, we must conclude the system's cleansing, and this will depend on the parliamentary elections,' Maia Sandu said.


The President highlighted the need to continue efforts to cleanse the Justice system and the prosecutors. 


'We will need to work for a few more years to increase professionalism,' Maia Sandu said.


The public's trust level in the justice system is 51.7% (moderate, high and very high trust levels). This is the conclusion of a study on access to justice in the Republic of Moldova, whose data were published in March 2025. The study also shows that of the institutions relevant to the justice sector, the highest trust is given to notaries (38%), followed by local public authorities (32.1%), and bailiffs (19.1%). The sample size was 3,066 respondents. The research was conducted by UNDP under Improving access to justice for living in dignity project, in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and with financial support from Germany and Sweden.