Moldova: Support to the Constitutional Court of Moldova

Details: Published: June 1, 2018

Gabor Attila Tóth, Olesea Garbuz, Team Leader Volkmar Theobald, Toma Birmontienė, Mamuka Jgenti and Ana Rotari (from left to right)

EU Technical Assistance

Team leader: Volkmar Theobald
Responsible at the IRZ: Teresa Thalhammer, Maike Ruhlig

The web presence of the project: Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova

This project with a volume of almost EUR 1.4 million ended in September 2017 after a period of 19 months. The four-member international team of experts supported the Moldovan Constitutional Court in its efforts to improve the internal organisation of the court and to restructure the working and research methods, in particular of its academic staff. This was done, among other things, by means of training courses on the methodological working methods and a series of further training courses on the interpretation of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and established European constitutional courts as well as on the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. In addition, the judges of the Moldovan Constitutional Court visited the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe and the Lithuanian Constitutional Court in Vilnius. In doing so, they were able to exchange information with their colleagues on the different workflows and on the interaction between the European and national levels. In the legislative consultation component, two project experts were represented in the Commission of the Ministry of Justice, that had to draw up proposals for the revision of the law on the Constitutional Court. This legislative reform could not be completed during the course of the project. Many activities also served to improve the court’s public relations strategy. For example, seminars were held for employees of non-governmental organizations and journalists in order to improve the quality of Moldovan media coverage of the Constitutional Court. The last Steering Committee meeting and the closing event in September 2017 made it clear how positively the project was assessed by all sides. The Lithuanian Constitutional Court and the German School of Law in Warsaw participated in this project as consortium partners.