Head of state says Moldova counts on Council of Europe's support in evaluating judges, prosecutors, due to start in 2022

Chisinau, 22 November /MOLDPRES/ - We count on the Council of Europe’s support in the process of extraordinary evaluation of the judges and prosecutors, which will start in 2022 and which will allow us cleaning the system of people with problems of integrity and unjustified wealth. The expertise offered by the Council of Europe to this end is useful and necessary in the current efforts of promotion and carrying out of the domestic transformations. President Maia Sandu today made statements to this effect at a joint news conference with Council of Europe’s Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić, on a visit to Chisinau.  

The president said that the visit by the European official was meant to mark the progress made in the last several months in the relation between Moldova and the Council of Europe and to take note of the most important developments in the justice sector.   

“I discussed with Mrs. Secretary General about the carrying out of the assistance projects included in the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for 2021-2024, which we launched together in Strasbourg in last April, in the continuation of the strategic cooperation earlier initiated. This Plan has the goal to assist us in the adjusting of the legislation, institutions and practices to the European standards in the human rights sector, rule of law state and democracy. The projects included in the Action Plan regards the ensuring of the integrity and independence of the actors in justice, combating the violence against children and women, overcoming the challenges dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, backing the media and other fields of interest for us,’’ Sandu said.     

Maia Sandu added that another subjects intensely discussed had been the justice reform. ‘’Moldova now has a unique occasion to make a substantial change in the justice sector and for this, we must move quickly and resolutely. We appreciate the assistance provided to this end by the high-level working group of the Council of Europe, established under the auspices of Mrs. Secretary General, in order to back Moldova’s effort of reforming the justice sector. We rely, in this context, on the support of the Council of Europe in the process of extraordinary evaluation of judges and prosecutors, which will start in 2022, which will allow us cleaning the system of people with integrity problems and unjustified wealth. The expertise provided by the Council of Europe in this respect is useful and necessary in the present efforts of promotion and carrying out of the domestic transformations. We are aware that some actions promoted in this field might be interpreted as extraordinary actions; yet, they are justified by the extraordinary circumstances in which the Moldovan governance works today. Our actions hit the deep interests of the corrupt groups, which have been rooted and consolidated in corruption schemes during years, and they put up full resistance,’’ Maia Sandu also said.        

The head of state reiterated Moldova’s firm commitment to fulfill the obligations taken in the context of joining the Council of Europe in 1995.  

The Council of Europe’s Secretary General said that she appreciated the governance’s will to implement the reforms which are crucial for the European integration process, to which Moldova aspires. She reiterated the Council of Europe’s support for the process of reforms underway in Moldova, including for the justice reform.