The Council of Europe anticorruption body GRECO noted that, although Parliament had reportedly lifted immunities in all cases (asked by prosecutors, e.n.), there was no clear and objective criteria guiding the parliamentary procedure and decisions, says the Interim Compliance Report that assesses the measures taken by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova to implement 18 recommendations issued in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report on the Republic of Moldova covering “Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors”, IPN reports. The report published today was adopted on December 3, 2021.
“The authorities now confirm that the immunity of parliamentarians continues to be lifted in practice, upon request of the Prosecutor General, but indicate that there has been no change as regards the adoption of the Code of Parliamentary Rules and Procedures which is due to include a procedure for lifting parliamentarians’ immunity. In September 2021, a referral was submitted by 63 parliamentarians to propose constitutional amendments aimed at making it possible to lift immunity without prior approval of Parliament when parliamentarians have committed passive or active corruption, abuse of powers, illicit enrichment and money laundering offences. This referral was accepted by the Constitutional Court. Therefore, the Law on amending the Constitution can be examined by Parliament after 6 months from the submission of the draft law,” said the report authors.
GRECO encourages the authorities to take determined measures in order to ensure that the procedures for lifting parliamentary immunity do not hamper or prevent criminal investigations in respect of members of Parliament suspected of having committed corruption related offences.
The Moldovan authorities haven’t fully fulfilled the GRECO recommendation to change the composition of the Superior Council of Magistracy, in particular by abolishing the ex officio participation of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General and by allowing for more diverse profiles among lay members of the Council, on the basis of objective and measurable selection criteria; ensuring that both judicial and lay members of the Council are elected following a fair and transparent procedure. GRECO noted that decisions of the Superior Council of Magistrates should be adequately reasoned and be subject to judicial review, both on the merits of the case and on procedural grounds.
GRECO recommends that appropriate measures be taken, with due regard to judicial independence, in order to avoid the appointment and promotion to judicial positions of candidates presenting integrity risks; and abolishing the five-year probation period for judges. It also recommends that additional steps be taken to ensure that cases are adjudicated without unjustified delays and, to increase the transparency and accessibility of information available to the public on judicial activity.
As to “Corruption prevention in respect of prosecutors”, GRECO recommends that appropriate measures be taken to ensure that the composition and operation of the Superior Council of Prosecutors be subject to appropriate guarantees of objectivity, impartiality and transparency, and that additional measures be taken in order to strengthen the objectivity, efficiency and transparency of the legal and operational framework for the disciplinary liability of prosecutors.
GRECO concluded that the Republic of Moldova has now implemented satisfactorily or dealt with in a satisfactory manner only six of the eighteen recommendations contained in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report. Of the remaining recommendations, nine have been partly implemented and three have not been implemented.
