Today, on 10 February 2026, the Independent Evaluation Commission for assessing the integrity of candidates for the position of member in the self-administration bodies of judges and prosecutors (“Pre-Vetting Commission”) publishes its End of Mandate Report.
The Pre-Vetting Commission was established by Law No. 26/2022 in March 2022 and commenced its work in April 2022. By September 2023, the Commission evaluated a total of 67 candidates. By the end of December 2023, two more candidates were evaluated.
Initially, 23 candidates passed and 46 candidates failed the evaluation. In response to appeals against Commission decisions before the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), the Commission conducted 22 resumed evaluations between September 2023 and November 2024 and one second resumed evaluation between September 2024 and February 2025. In total, at the end of the entire process, out of 69 candidates, 26 candidates passed and 43 candidates failed the evaluation. The mandate of the Pre-Vetting Commission ended in November 2025 with the last decision of the SCJ in relation to an appeal against a resumed evaluation decision.
In its End of Mandate Report, the Commission provides more statistical data about its work and describes a number of challenges with which it was confronted, lessons learned and the results from its work. Challenges related, for example, to the fact that the Commission was constantly confronted with serious staffing shortages, while it had to collect and analyze high volumes of information from different public and private organizations, that cooperation by some candidates with the Commission was at times not optimal and that decisions on appeal by the SCJ were regularly delayed for six or even more months, or that the Commission had to contend with routine smear campaigns against its work or its members.
Based upon the decisions of the Commission, the Superior Council of Magistracy and the Superior Council for Prosecutors now consist of new vetted members and are fully operational, fulfilling the primary objective of the pre-vetting process. The evaluations also increased awareness amongst judges and prosecutors about the need to ensure full compliance with financial and ethical integrity standards, while strengthening public understanding of integrity standards within the justice system. With these results, the Republic of Moldova is making important steps towards meeting European Union standards relating to respect for the rule of law.
The report is available in Romanian and English at the following links:
