The process of reforming the justice sector is very slow. Only 44 of the 101 actions that were overdue in 2012, or 43%, were carried out in the first quarter of this. The figures were presented in a news conference at IPN held to present the second quarterly monitoring report on the implementation of the reform strategy.

“The situation is more serious as regards the actions that were to be taken in the second quarter of this year. Only six or 19% of the 31 actions were carried out,” said the director of the Association for Efficient and Responsible Government Olesea Stamate.

The Supreme Council of Magistrates, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Council for State Guaranteed Legal Aid managed to implement less than half of the planned actions – about 40%. The figure at the Ministry of Justice, the National Anticorruption Center and the National Justice Institute stands at 60%.

According to program director of Promo-LEX Association Pavel Postica, a positive dynamic was seen as regards the quality of hearings in courts of law. Only 77 of the total monitored hearings in the first quarter were held in courtrooms, but in the second quarter the figure rose almost three times. The number of hearings recorded by audio equipment increased by about 12%.

The main recommendations made by experts refer to the necessity of strengthening the activity of the working groups, supplementing the regulations concerning the activity of working group with provisions obliging publishing meetings’ proceedings, the agenda and other things, including the correspondence, on the website of the Ministry of Justice. Another recommendation is to make changes to the plan of action so as to update and specify the terms for implementing the actions.

The report was produced within the project “Increasing Government Accountability by Monitoring the Justice Sector Reform” that is implemented by Promo-LEX Association and the Association for Efficient and Responsible Government, with financial support from the European Union.