The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published on Friday, 19 May, a report on Moldova, assessing progress made in implementing the recommendations addressed to the country in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report (2016) on the prevention of corruption targeting members of parliament, judges and prosecutors.

GRECO concludes that Moldova has now satisfactorily implemented or satisfactorily addressed six of the eighteen recommendations contained in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report. Of the remaining recommendations, ten have been partially implemented and two have not been implemented.

GRECO also notes that the current low level of compliance with the recommendations remains “unsatisfactory overall” and requests Moldova to report on progress in implementing the remaining recommendations by 31 March 2024 at the latest.

Its main conclusions are as follows:

• “As far as members of parliament are concerned, apart from an emerging parliamentary practice of waiving immunity of MPs, progress in the implementation of outstanding recommendations is rather absent. A code of conduct for parliamentarians remains to be adopted, including rules for different conflict of interest situations and for interactions with third parties/lobbyists. More efforts should be made to update Parliament’s website with information on draft legislation, to hold meaningful public consultations and to ensure that public input is properly taken into account. The National Integrity Authority continues to be constrained by staff shortages and needs an institutional strategy.
  
• As regards judges, the removal of the ex officio membership of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General from the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) – which is an important step in itself, the establishment of criteria for the election of judges and non-judges as members of the SCM, the legal obligation of the SCM to state reasons for all its decisions, the adoption of reasoned decisions in disciplinary matters and some changes to the disciplinary procedure for judges are positive developments. However, it should be underlined that the pre-vetting of candidates to the SCM, the proposed vetting of certain categories of judges and the increased role of the Minister of Justice in convening the General Assembly of Judges negatively affect the implementation of certain outstanding recommendations and could reverse the achievements made so far.
  
• As far as prosecutors are concerned, draft amendments are being prepared to abolish the ex officio membership of the Minister of Justice and the President of the SCM in the High Council of Prosecutors and to revise and strengthen the legal framework on disciplinary liability of prosecutors. The authorities are encouraged to adopt the proposed amendments and implement the outstanding recommendations,” the report says.

A delegation of four GRECO evaluators (Croatia, Finland, Romania and Slovenia) and a member of the GRECO secretariat visited Chisinau on 15-19 May 2023 to carry out the assessment of Moldova in the framework of the fifth round of GRECO evaluation. The topics addressed were the prevention of corruption and the promotion of integrity in the central administration (top executive positions) and law enforcement agencies. An evaluation report will be prepared and considered by the GRECO Plenary during 2023.

Previously, a GRECO interim report for the fourth round of the Moldova evaluation, adopted at the Plenary session from 29 November to 3 December 2021, was published on 9 February 2022.

It noted then that “Moldova has implemented six of the 18 recommendations contained in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report. Of the remaining recommendations, nine have been partially implemented and three have not been implemented”.