The Moldovan authorities will consider the Venice Commission’s opinion and some of the recommendations will be turned into bills to amend the law on the prosecution service. The head of the Parliament’s commissions on appointments and immunities Olesea Stamate said the recommendations of the European experts are welcome and will contribute to the improvement of the legislation, primarily as regards the assessment of the performance of the prosecutor general. All the assessment criteria will be stipulated by law and will not be left to the discretion of the Superior Council of Prosecutors, IPN reports.
Olesea Stamate said some of the Venice Commission’s recommendations will be turned into laws, while others will be yet discussed with the minister of justice.
“When there is a vertical of power in the prosecution service, the prosecutor general’s participation in the meetings of the Superior Council of Prosecutors will only exert influence, pressure on the Council’s members. The exclusion of the prosecutor of Gagauzia from the Council’s composition was discussed a lot, but tell me please how often did you see him at the meetings of the Council the last few years?” Olesea Stamate stated in the talk show “Freedom” on TV8 channel, noting their goal was to make the Council more representative and efficient.
Olesea Stamate said the good news is that the experts of the Venice Commission approved of the initiative to assess the performance of the prosecutor general and the law will be now amended to specify the assessment criteria and to exclude possible abuses.
“When we approved the bill, we agreed that the Superior Council of Prosecutors will decide the assessment criteria itself, based on the provisions concerning the duties of the prosecutor general,” stated the MP.
In the Venice Commission’s opinion about the law on the prosecution service, the European experts recommended that the work of the Superior Council of Prosecutors should be regulated in the Constitution so as to avoid eventual arbitrary amendments to the law, and that the current procedure for assessing the prosecutor general should be modified by introducing clearer assessment criteria. They also said the legislative amendments were made hastily, in the absence of broad discussions with civil society.
