Most of the planned justice reform actions have been implemented with some insignificant reservations, with an alternative report rating the effort at a 4 out of 5.
Justice reform is one of the 9 compartments of an action plan in response to 9 recommendations formulated by the European Commission before Moldova can start EU accession negotiations. The alternative report, the second edition, was presented on Thursday by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), the Independent Analytical Center Expert-Group and the Legal Resources Center (CRJM), as part of the #ThinkTanks4EUMembership initiative, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Andrei Nasu, an expert with CRJM, noted that the justice reform commitment includes six actions, of which one action was fully implemented without drawbacks, four actions were implemented with insignificant deficiencies and one action is a work in progress. The main developments include the entry into force of the Law on Judicial Inspection and Disciplinary Liability, the adoption of the Law on the Selection and Evaluation of Judges, and the appointment of four judges and three non-judge members to the Higher Council of the Judiciary. A constraint is that the Judicial Inspection has not been granted true functional independence, as it has to share a secretariat with the Higher Council. Also, the protocol for verifying the integrity of candidates enrolled at the INJ, as well as the internal procedure for verifying the integrity of judges and prosecutors throughout their careers, was not clearly regulated.
According to IPRE director Iulian Groza, the score for the combating corruption action is 3.77 out of 5. One achievement is the adoption of the new Law on Whistleblowers, which transposes an EU Directive. However, the Law has not yet been published and has not entered into force. The first half of 2023 saw an increase in the share of proactive anti-corruption investigations, with a greater focus on “grand corruption” ones. There is also an increase in the number of criminal cases resulting in convictions, with 59 sentences being handed down, compared to 41 in the first half of 2022. Among the priorities remain a clearer delimitation of subject-matter jurisdiction between the National Anticorruption Center and the Anticorruption Prosecution Service, and the strengthening of the Anticorruption Prosecution Service’s capacities to investigate grand corruption, including through a separate budget, more staff, and IT solutions.
On de-oligarchization, the experts believe that most of the actions have been implemented with some reservations, with the score being 3.7 out of 5 points. According to Ilie Chirtoacă, CRJM expert, after consulting with state institutions and the Venice Commission, the authorities scrapped the bill on eliminating excessive influence of private interests on economic, political and public life in exchange for a de-oligarchization Action Plan. Presented and consulted in March-April 2023, the Plan received a new opinion from the Venice Commission in June 2023. Meanwhile, at the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), a Supervisory Directorate was set up to monitor the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns. Law no. 303/2022 amended the Audiovisual Media Services Code, giving the Audiovisual Council the authority to verify and approve or reject annual reports from media service providers. A priority in this compartment is to create and fund a leading institution to coordinate the efforts of the de-oligarchization plan.
On combating organized crime, IPRE expert Adrian Ermurachi, noted that most of the planned actions are already implemented, with the score being 4.35 out of 5 points. The Government has adopted the 2022-2030 Internal Affairs Development Strategy and the 2023-2027 Criminal Assets Recovery Program. Among the priorities in the immediate period are the adoption of legislative amendments for putting in practice the civil confiscation instrument, as well as secondary legislation for implementing amendments in the field of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
