The draft law on the prosecution service will be submitted to the Venice Commission for appraisal, Deputy Minister of Justice Sabina Cerbu announced in a meeting with foreign diplomats accredited to Chisinau, IPN reports, quoting a communiqué of the Ministry of Justice.
“The commission will pronounce on this bill next March. We think the recommendations of experts will be helpful to the parliamentary working group in drafting a law that would meet the international standards and would contain the best practices in this field,” said Sabina Cerbu.
The ambassadors welcomed the Ministry of Justice’s decision to remit the bill to the Venice Commission. “Experts’ opinions will help optimize the activity of the parliamentary working group and make progress in implementing the reform of the prosecution service, which is a priority not only for the Ministry of Justice, but also for the government,” said the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola.
This July, Parliament adopted the strategy for reforming the prosecution service and the Law on the Prosecution Service in a move to implement the justice sector reform strategy and solve the problems identified in the work of the prosecution service.
The strategy envisions a number of changes in the work of the prosecution service, aimed at ensuring greater transparency, more efficient work, higher salaries and greater political independence. The procedure for naming the prosecutor general will be modified, but only after the Constitution is amended. The prosecutor general will be appointed by the head of state, at the suggestion of the Supreme Council of Prosecutors, not by Parliament, at the suggestion of the Speaker, as now, for a seven-year term.
The reformation of the prosecution service is a condition provided in the policy matrix annexed to the agreement on budget support provided to Moldova by the EU. Depending on the results achieved, the EU allocates annually parts of the €60 million provided for the justice sector reform. The first tranche of €15 million was transferred last November, while the second, to the value of €13.2 million, was disbrursed this September.
