External evaluation of the Central Court of Appeal completed: the last report submitted to SCM for review

The Judicial Vetting Commission has submitted the last report on the external evaluation of the judges from the Central Court of Appeal. The report concerns judge Ion Bulhac, who, according to the Commission’s conclusions, did not pass the integrity evaluation.

The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) is expected to review the evaluation results and decide whether to accept or reject the report. The evaluation report will become public after the expiration of the appeal period or, as the case may be, following a final decision by the Supreme Court of Justice.

Context

The Judicial Vetting Commission launched the external evaluation process of the Central Court of Appeal (renamed from the Chișinău Court of Appeal as of December 2024) in April 2024. Following the initiation of this procedure, of the 40 sitting judges, 21 resigned, 1 passed the pre-vetting, and 18 remained subject to the external evaluation.

Following the issuance of the last report by the Commission, the pass rate for the external evaluation of judges from the Central Court of Appeal stands at 50%, as follows:

• 9 judges received recommendations for promotion;
• 9 judges received recommendations for non-promotion.

Some of these cases have already been reviewed by the SCM, which upheld the Commission’s recommendations for 4 judges. In 4 other cases, the SCM ordered a reevaluation, while the rest of the files are still under examination at the SCM level.

‍