Moldova has completed three out of nine steps identified in the European Council opinion, announced the EU Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, following the informal General Affairs Council on Friday.
The first completed concerns greater involvement of civil society in decision-making processes; the second is addressing the shortcomings identified by the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission on the judiciary reform and the reforms of the electoral court; and the third is strengthening the protection of human rights, particularly of vulnerable groups, and enhancing gender equality and fight violence against women.
According to the European commissioner, progress on the implementation of the other steps are also on track. Moldova has achieved good progress on other three areas, namely on justice reform, on de-oligarchization and on public finance management reforms.
“In the area of justice reforms, a comprehensive reform of the judiciary is taking place with legislative amendments already adopted following the Venice Commission's recommendations and to be able to fully address this step, of course Moldova has still work to do, to align the draft law on ‘vetting’ with the Venice Commission recommendations, appoint a general prosecutor in a transparent and merit-based procedure, fill the remaining vacancies of the Superior Council of the Magistracy and to ensure the functioning of the Supreme Court of Justice”, said Olivér Várhelyi.
Regarding the de-oligarchization, the European commissioner noted that Moldova adopted a systemic approach, following the Venice Commission recommendations. To fully address the step, Moldova needs to address all the recommendations of the Venice Commission, reinforce the competition policy, including the capacity of the Competition Council and further demonstrate the effectiveness of the Audiovisual Council.
On public finance management reforms, Moldova has to implement the policy on state ownership and to adopt the laws on public-private partnership and public property management.
“Finally, most of the work has to be concentrated around now fighting corruption, on the fight against organized crime, including asset recovery and fight against financial crime and money laundering and on public administration reforms, where they have achieved some progress”, added Olivér Várhelyi.
On anti-corruption, Moldova needs to ensure efficient actions of the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office and the National Anti-Corruption Centre and to improve further the quality of investigations and efficiency of the prosecution leading to convictions. On the fight against organised crime: Moldova needs to adopt secondary legislation for the Law on Preventing and Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and to adopt legislative amendments to implement the mechanism of civil confiscations.
“And finally, on public administration reform, Moldova needs to finalize the functional review of the ministries and continue to reform the salary system and merit-based civil service”, added the European Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner.
