The Constitutional Court (CC) of Moldova must be reformed, including such aspects as the selection of judges and the procedure for examining challenges. National and foreign experts carried out three researches within the Study on the Strengthening of the Role of the Constitutional Court, which forms part of the justice sector reform strategy for 2011-2016. The study was made with EU funds, IPN reports.
The experts suggested that the authorities should establish unique and transparent criteria for selecting candidates and naming them as judges. The CC judges should be appointed for a period of nine years and should be renewed once in three years proportionally. The number of judges should be raised to seven, but it won’t be a problem if the current number of six judges is kept.
Miroslaw Granat, judge of the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland, said the fact that the private individuals cannot file applications to the CC is a deficiency in Moldova. On the other hand, Yevgeny Tanchev, vice president of the Venice Commission and ex-president of the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, said it is now inopportune for Moldova to institute the individual right to apply to the CC. The experts also recommended empowering the CC with the right to determine the constitutionality of the laws before they take effect.
CC president Alexandru Tanase said that many persons over the last few years spoke about the necessity of reforming the Court, but nobody suggested concrete solutions. The three researches covered all the CC’s areas that need to be reformed. Head of Parliament Andrian Candu assured that the CC’s reformation proposals will be examined by the MPs.
Attending the roundtable meeting held to present the study, Acting Minister of Justice Vladimir Grosu said the Ministry waited for such a study for a long time and its results and recommendations should be transposed to legislative initiatives. A law that would clearly define all the criteria for appointing the CC judges is needed. The issue of subjects that can go to the CC has been debated for about 10 years.
Constitutional expert Vitalie Catana said the reform is necessary, but a balance must be maintained so as not to institute excessive control in the field.
