The chairman of the Pre-Vetting Commission, Herman von Hebel, on Thursday evening, 2 March, came up with more details about the evaluation process for judges, which has been slower than anticipated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). “The pre-vetting process takes time. For us the most important thing was quality, but not speed,” Herman von Hebel told Jurnal TV’s “The Shadow Cabinet” political show.

The pre-vetting process requires an enormous amount of information and analysis, the commission chief stressed.

“I think the word ‘delay’ is not appropriate here. From what I know about the minister’s statement (editor’s note: Sergiu Litvinenco, former Minister of Justice) is that he wanted this pre-vetting process and maybe later vetting to take place as soon as possible, because people in Moldova want this to happen quickly. This is justified, but it was important for us from the day we started to make a fair process, to make sure that candidates are treated properly, that we ask all the necessary questions and that we, both national and international members, are convinced that a candidate can pass or fail the assessment.

This requires an enormous amount of information, analysis of information, information that is not always available in English, that is why a number of documents that are very important for us had to be translated, we had to discuss them among ourselves, which are the standards according to the law. We started from scratch in April 2022. I mean everything was new. We had to develop our practices. What we see now when we work on parliamentary candidates is that things are moving much faster, but what is important is that we continue to ensure that our process is thorough, that we dig deep, that we identify the problems that exist, and also that we see which candidates really can pass the assessment, where the financial analysis shows that they are in good shape, financially speaking, and are not involved in any form of corruption. We think we have to do this properly. Let’s do it once, because you can’t repeat this process in 4-5 years. If you do it now, you’d better do it right, because otherwise it doesn’t make sense to do it. That’s why this process takes time. For us the most important thing was quality, but not speed,” he said.

Earlier, former Justice Minister Sergiu Litvinenco said that the evaluation of judges and prosecutors should be completed by the end of 2022.

The pre-vetting commission announced on Tuesday, 17 January, that it had started the evaluation procedure for the group of candidates put forward by the Parliament for membership of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM). The list of 12 non-judge candidates, admitted to the competition by a decision of the Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs, Appointments and Immunities, includes self-employed lawyers, lawyers and representatives of civil society and academia, who will undergo a financial and ethical integrity verification process in order to become eligible to become permanent members of the CSM.

Of the non-judge candidates who pass the pre-vetting commission’s assessment, Parliament will appoint, by a vote of three-fifths of the elected deputies, six members of the Superior Council of Magistracy. Thus, the new composition of the CSM will be made up of 6 judges, elected by secret ballot by the General Assembly of Judges, and 6 non-judges, appointed by Parliament.