Draft law on prosecution submitted to Venice Commission for consideration

Chisinau, 15 November /MOLDPRES/- The leadership of the Justice Ministry had a meeting with Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola, Head of the OSCE Mission Michael Scanlan and representatives of the US Embassy in Chisinau Philip Breeden and Samuel Mikhelson on 14 November. The officials tackled the justice reforms, especially, prosecution reform – a priority for the Justice Ministry.

According to a communiqué by the ministry, Deputy Minister Sabina Cerbu informed the European officials that the draft law on prosecution had been sent to the Venice Commission for consideration. “After approval of conception to reform the prosecution, the Justice Ministry passed the draft law on prosecution and submitted it to the Venice Commission for consideration. The commission will comment on this draft in March 2015. We believe that the experts’ recommendations will help the parliamentary working group elaborate a law that will meet the international standards and will comprise the best practices in the field”, Cerbu said.

The ambassadors welcomed the Justice Ministry’s initiative to submit the draft to the commission. They said it was an important and necessary step that would speed up reforming the prosecution. “The experts’ opinion will optimize the work of the parliamentary group on this draft law and will move forward the prosecution reform, which is a priority not only for the Justice Ministry, but also for government”, Tapiola said.

We can remind that in July 2014, the parliament voted the concept on prosecution reform. The concept and law on prosecution have been elaborated by a special working group, created by the Justice Ministry and Prosecutor’s General Office, meant to implement the strategy on reforming justice sector, as well as to settle the problems identified in the prosecution’s work. Subsequently, the documents have been taken over by a parliamentary group, which promoted the concept on reforming prosecution in the parliament. The working group is to complete and promote the draft law on prosecution.

The prosecution reform is a conditionality seen in the policy matrix – annex to the agreement on budget support provided to Moldova by the EU. According to the implementation of conditions seen in this matrix, the EU annually transfers 60 million euros for the justice reform, by installments. The first installment amounting to 15 million euros the EU transferred in November 2013. The second one worth 13.2 million euros was provided in September 2014.