Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on the Prosecution Service of the Republic of Moldova

OSCE/ODIHR, the Venice Commission and DG I welcome the Draft Law, which represents, overall, a substantial improvement of the current Law regulating the operation of the Moldovan Prosecution Service and reflects a genuine effort to modernize the existing legal framework, in line with relevant European standards and best practices. It appears to be of good technical and structural quality, and it deals in detail - although in some cases in a too detailed manner - with many important aspects of the functioning of the Prosecution Service. The opinion recommended, however, to provide a more precise and narrow delineation of the powers of the Prosecution Service outside of criminal law; to include more precise provisions on the internal independence of prosecutors and related safeguards; to include a specific mechanism for the dismissal of the Prosecutor General; to reconsider the proposed provisions with respect to prosecutors in the Autonomous Territorial Unit (ATU) of Gagauzia and to ensure that the Transitional Provisions provide for the appropriate harmonization of the provisions of the Draft Law with those of the Code of Criminal Procedure and any other relevant legislative provisions.