The term of the Pre-Screening Committee will be extended by six months “in order to be able to evaluate all candidates for the vacant posts”. Draft law voted in first reading

The pre-vetting commission will operate until 30 June 2023. At the plenary session on Thursday, December 1, 52 MPs voted in the first reading on amendments to the Law on certain measures related to the selection of candidates for membership in self-administrative bodies of judges and prosecutors.

The Commission’s term of work will be extended by six months, following a request by the pre-vetting committee to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, Appointments and Immunities, the legislature announced.

According to the legislation, the Commission was to assess the integrity of candidates for vacant positions in the Superior Council of Magistracy, the College for the Selection and Career of Judges, the College for the Evaluation of the Performance of Judges, the Disciplinary College of Judges, the Superior Council of Prosecutors, the College for the Selection and Career of Prosecutors, the College for the Evaluation of the Performance of Prosecutors and the College for Discipline and Ethics under the Superior Council of Prosecutors by 31 December.

The members of the Commission are currently in the process of evaluating candidates for vacant posts in the CSM.

“Respectively, the deadline has been extended in order to succeed in the evaluation of all the candidates for the vacant posts in the other institutions, as well as the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice,” a Parliament release said.

The authors of the document also propose legislative changes, which concern the working process of the Evaluation Commission: issues related to procedural deadlines, how to work with personal data, as well as how to publish the Commission’s decisions and video recordings of hearings.

The mechanism for the selection of candidates for membership of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP) and their specialised bodies was amended in February 2022. During the plenary session, MPs adopted, in final reading, the draft providing for the assessment of candidates’ integrity. The document was supported by 63 PAS MEPs.