Joint answer given by Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission

18.2.2020

The EU is fully aware of this issue and attaches great importance to the reform of the justice sector in the Republic of Moldova, a reform which is at the core of the Association Agreement. References to this were made in the Council Conclusions of 2016 and 2018 and the recent Spokesperson statement of 12 November 2019[1]. Similar messages are also passed in political and sectoral dialogue meetings between the EU and Moldova. The EU is also financing a project to assess in Moldova, and in the five other Eastern Partnership countries, the functioning of the judiciary through court satisfaction surveys. Results will be available in 2020 and will feed the sectoral policy dialogue. However, the EU does not have the right or the capacity to determine the outcome of specific legal cases that fall under national jurisdiction.

EU assistance is linked to strict conditionality and to satisfactory progress in reforms, including, in particular, on the judiciary.

• [1] https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-Homepage/70293/statement-spokesperson-situation-republic-moldova_en