A report with a recommendation for non-promotion and a dissenting opinion submitted to the SCM for review

The Judicial Vetting Commission has completed the assessment of judge Ruxanda Pulbere from the Central Court of Appeal (formerly the Court of Appeal Chișinău) and has submitted the report to the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), recommending that judge fails the evaluation. A member of the Commission expressed disagreement with the majority opinion that supported the approval of the report and drafted a separate opinion. The dissenting opinion was submitted to the SCM to be reviewed together with the report.

The SCM shall examine both the Commission’s report and the dissenting opinion and issue a decision on whether to accept or reject the recommendation of failure in the evaluation. Until a final decision is adopted, the evaluation result is published on the Commission’s website, in the “Subjects” section. The full report and the dissenting opinion will be made public within three days of either the expiration of the legal period for appealing the SCM’s decision or, if applicable, the issuance of a final judgment by the Supreme Court of Justice in the event of an appeal.

Judge Pulbere’s evaluation was randomly assigned to Panel A of the Commission. Since the panel members could not reach a consensus, the full Commission decided to hear the judge in a public session on February 10. Subsequently, additional procedural steps were undertaken to clarify certain aspects relevant to the judge’s integrity. In this context, a third party was also interviewed by the Commission on February 17.

Evaluation progress at the Central Court of Appeal – final report underway

Out of the 18 sitting judges of the Central Court of Appeal who have been subject to evaluation, 9 judges have received reports recommending promotion, while 8 judges received reports recommending failure of the evaluation. One final report is underway. Two reports concerning judges of this court were submitted by the SCM to the Commission for re-evaluation. The judges in question have appealed the SCM's reasoned decisions, and these appeals are currently under review. Once final rulings are issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, the Commission will take all necessary legal actions.

General statistics

Since the beginning of its mandate, the Judicial Vetting Commission has received 183 individuals for evaluation, based on the three laws governing the external evaluation process. Of these, 50 individuals have either resigned or withdrawn from competitions, and 4 have previously passed the pre-vetting process. To date, the Commission has completed 70 evaluations, while another 59 are currently ongoing.

‍