Representatives of civil society working in the field of justice and anticorruption formulated a number of opinions and recommendations concerning the efficient implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU in a civic forum. Director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CreDO) Sergiu Ostaf said the level of confidence in courts of law, investigation institutions and the prosecution service is now very low and such a situation is alarming, IPN reports.

Sergiu Ostaf said the positive effect of the transformation of the justice system following the implementation of the Association Agreement is insignificant. A series of institutional changes occurred in 2016, but these do not have yet tangible results for the people. The positive impact of the transformations will have to be measured by the authorities in the near future.

“The new justice sector reform strategy should be built on success assessment principles based on the impact of the benefits for the people, not only on institutional transformations. Another recommendation is to ensure transparency in justice at all the stages. As regards the pre-trial investigation procedure, the people should be informed about the case examination stage, especially when the cases have an impact on society,” added Sergiu Ostaf.

Minister of Justice Vladimir Cebotari said that after Moldova in 2011 created a common framework for all the justice sector reform efforts, significant results were achieved during the next five years andthe plan of action for implementing the Association Agreement was over 90% carried out.

The minister noted that at legislative and regulatory levels, Moldova did its homework. Now effort is made to implement all the changes approved by the Government or Parliament in the recent period. “Our consistent steps are awaited in society as not all the reform components have been yet implemented,” stated Cebotari.