The selection and appointment of members of the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) and the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP) will be regulated in accordance with new provisions. The MPs adopted a bill to amend the law on the Superior Council of Magistracy, the law on judicial organization and the law on the prosecution service, IPN reports.

According to one of the authors, Sergiu Litvinenco, the General Assembly of Judges will choose six judges for SCM member, four of whom from courts of law and by one from appeals courts and the Supreme Court of Justice. SCM will announce the elections at least two months beforehand. The candidates for these posts will register at least four weeks before the General Assembly of Judges. The draft law reintroduces the requirements for judge candidates - at least three years of service as a judge and absence of disciplinary punishment during the last three years.

The bill contains similar provisions with reference to the elections to SCP.

The draft law defines the method of organizing the General Assembly of Judges, which can be held also in teleconference format, and allows for the use of electronic voting in extraordinary cases, such as the pandemic, but these cases are to be specified by the regulations of the General Assembly of Judges.

The document introduces a more equitable mechanism for identifying substitute judges, who will no longer have to run on a parallel lists, while the number of substitute judges will not be limited as now.

The other six SCM members are three ex officio members and three law professors named by Parliament. The number of law professors was raised from two to three so as to make sure that the Council has 12 members, as the bill to amend the Constitution provides.

The bill was endorsed by the Parliament’s legal commission for appointments and immunities.