The executive on May 8 approved the draft law on the prosecution service, which institutes, among others, a new mechanism for naming the prosecutor general, IPN reports.

The prosecutor general will be appointed for one term of seven years. The candidate will be selected at a contest organized by the Supreme Council of Prosecutors. The person who will get the highest score will be proposed to the head of state for confirmation. The President will be able to reject the candidate proposed by the Supreme Council of Prosecutors only once.

Minister of Justice Vladimir Grosu said a new approach was adopted in relation to the competence of the prosecution service, which was deprived of powers in the non-penal area.

The prosecution system will consist of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the specialized prosecutor’s offices and the local ones. The Prosecutor General’s Office will remain a mainly administrative institution. In addition to the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, there will be created the Prosecutor’s Office for Special Cases that will investigate offenses committed by criminal organizations, terrorism and torture-related offences instead of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The bill also provides that the salaries of prosecutors will be raised, in accordance with the pays of judges. For instance, the salary of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office and specialized prosecutor’s offices will represent 90% of the salary of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The bill is to be adopted by Parliament. The law will take effect on January 1, 2016. The provisions that refer to the appointment of the prosecutor general by Moldova’s President will come into force after relevant amendments are made to the Constitution.