The Government approved on Tuesday, March 7, the draft law on the external evaluation of judges and candidates for the position of judge of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), drafted by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

The document regulates the process and criteria for evaluating the integrity of CSJ judges, the structure and organisation of the work of the evaluation commission, the effects of promotion and non-promotion of the evaluation.

“The integrity assessment exercise is proposed to be exceptional, unique and limited in time, carried out to verify the ethical and financial integrity of both judges and judicial candidates.

In the event of failure to pass the integrity assessment, the judge will be dismissed, with a ban on holding this or any other office of public dignity for 7 years and deprivation of entitlement to the one-off severance payment. Judges who have not passed the evaluation will also be deprived of the right to a special pension, with the maintenance of the general pension for age limit”, say the representatives of the Executive.

The evaluation commission will complete the process of verifying the integrity of judges and candidates for the posts of judges of the Supreme Court within 6 months after the start of the evaluation procedure, so that the new full composition of the Supreme Court will be established in the near future, the Government announces.