The Constitutional Court (CC) ruled on the amendments to the Constitution, put forward by the executive, regarding the appointment of judges, the composition and competence of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM). In a press briefing that followed the ruling, the Court chairwoman, Domnica Manole, said that CC found that the bill submitted by the government does not comply with Constitution revision requirements, thus the bill can not be submitted to Parliament for examination.
By amending the Constitution, the executive proposed to exclude the initial five year term for judge appointment. If the bill passed into law, the judges would have been appointed, before reaching the age limit, by the President of Moldova, at the proposal of the Superior Council of Magistracy. The executive also proposed adding to the Constitution a provision which allowed the president to reject a single candidacy put forward by the CSM.
The Constitutional Court found that the part that provides that the president may reject the candidacy put forward by CSM only once lacks an institutional gridlock prevention mechanism, thus does not comply with Constitution revision requirements.
Domnica Manole said that, while analyzing the submitted notification, by which the government requested an opinion on the bill amending the Constitution, the Court noted that on the date of the notification registration, July 1, 2020, the government decision adopting the amendments to the Constitution was not published in the Official Gazette. If a government decision is not published in the Official Gazette, it is non-existent. The Court also noted that the draft law amending the Constitution, approved by government decision on January 22, 2020, differs in content from the draft law submitted for approval to the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court's opinion is final and cannot be appealed.
