Evaluation completed for judge Mihail Diaconu of the Central Court of Appeal

The Judicial Vetting Commission has completed the evaluation of judge Mihail Diaconu, serving at the Central Court of Appeal, and has submitted its report to the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM). The Commission recommended against his promotion following the external integrity assessment.

Judge Mihail Diaconu was evaluated by the Commission pursuant to Law 252/2023, which governs the vetting procedure. His case was randomly assigned to Panel B of the Commission, composed of Scott Bales, Willem Brouwer, and Iurie Gațcan. As part of the evaluation process, the judge was invited on multiple occasions to attend a public hearing. After several hearings were postponed at his request, judge Diaconu ultimately chose to exercise his right not to appear.

The SCM is expected to review the evaluation report and adopt a decision regarding its approval or rejection. Until a final decision is made, the result of the evaluation is available on the Commission’s website, under the "Subjects" section. The full report will be published within three days of the expiration of the appeal period for the SCM’s decision or, if an appeal is filed, following a final ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice.

Progress of evaluations at the Central Court of Appeal

In accordance with Law 252/2023, all 18 sitting judges of the Central Court of Appeal have been subject to the external evaluation (vetting) procedure. The current status is as follows:

• 9 judges received promotion recommendations, and the reports were submitted to the SCM;
• 6 judges received non-promotion recommendations, with reports also sent to the SCM;
• 3 reports are still being drafted.

Of the 15 reports submitted to SCM so far, 3 promotion reports have been reviewed and accepted. One case was returned to the Commission for reevaluation. One case has been postponed, and another case is under extended examination.

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