Vetting: Just one in five judges at the Centru Court of Appeal passed the external evaluation
Nine of the 40 judges at the Centru Court of Appeal successfully passed the financial and ethical integrity assessment, according to the Judges Evaluation Commission.
The vetting procedure in this case began in April 2024, and 21 magistrates resigned before undergoing the process.
According to the Judicial Evaluation Commission, one judge successfully passed the pre-vetting, while 18 others are still in the external evaluation process.
The Commission's latest report indicates that the promotion rate in the external evaluation of judges at the Centru Court of Appeal is 50%. Nine judges received promotion proposals, while another nine were recommended for non-promotion.
Some of these cases were already reviewed by the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), which upheld the Commission's recommendations for four judges. In four other cases, the SCM ordered a re-evaluation, and the remaining files are still under examination by the SCM.
Additionally, the Judicial Evaluation Commission has proposed 16 candidates for judgeship at the Supreme Court of Justice and the Courts of Appeal.
It is noteworthy that Ion Bulhac was the last judge to fail the external evaluation. Magistrate Constantin Roșca, a candidate for the position of judge at the Centru Court of Appeal, has withdrawn from the competition and requested the termination of the evaluation process.
Andrei Bivol, the vice president of the Judicial Evaluation Commission, recently noted that 180 judges were notified for evaluation over the past two years. Out of 130 completed evaluations, only 41 judges passed the external assessment, while 58 chose to leave the system before undergoing the vetting process.
Judges and prosecutors who fail the integrity test are removed from their positions and barred from working in the judicial system for five to seven years.
