Judges and candidates for the position of Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) judge will undergo external evaluation. A draft law providing for this was voted on Thursday, 30 March, in the second reading during the plenary session.

The draft law was voted by 63 MEPs at second reading.

The evaluation of the SCJ will be carried out by an Evaluation Commission within six months of the start of the procedure. More specifically, the members of the Commission will analyse information on the ethical and financial integrity of both current SCJ judges and candidates for vacant posts. According to the Parliament, the evaluation exercise will be applied only once.

“Assessing the integrity of SCJ judges is an obligation undertaken by Moldova both at national and international level. This reform is one of the basic conditionalities of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement. The aim of this initiative is to increase the quality of the judicial process and to ensure the appointment of impartial and honest judges,” the representatives of the legislature said.

The report on the promotion or non-promotion of the ethical and financial integrity assessment will be sent to the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), which will take a final decision. The SCM may reject the report and order a one-off re-run of the assessment procedure if it finds certain procedural errors and circumstances. At the same time, the SCM’s decision not to approve the evaluation will result in the dismissal of the judges. This could have the effect of “depriving them of the right to serve as a judge for seven years from the date the decision of the Superior Council of Magistracy becomes final”.

At the same time, they will not receive the one-off severance pay and will be deprived of the right to receive the special pension, with the general retirement pension being maintained.

The SCSJ’s decision not to pass the integrity assessment may also be challenged. The application will be examined in the Supreme Court of Justice by a panel of three judges who have not served in the SCJ until 31 December 2022. This requirement is necessary to avoid corporatism, conflicts of interest and subjectivism.