September 26 (SeeNews) - The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe will carry out two projects worth a total of 1.225 million euro ($1.34 million) aimed at improving Moldova's justice system under the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) framework for 2019-2021.
The first project has a 600,000 euro budget and will assist the Moldovan authorities in strengthening the efficiency and quality of the judicial system, the Council of Europe said in a press release on Wednesday.
Its aim is to facilitate a system for monitoring the progress of judicial reforms and to allow the adoption of justice sector policies based on evidence. Other objectives are improving the collection, reporting and analysis of data on the efficiency and quality of the courts and the enforcement system, and consolidating the mechanisms for judicial transparency and accountability.
In addition, this project aims to improve the system of enforcement of court decisions in civil and administrative cases, as well as to improve the professional capacities of bailiffs and the tools at their disposal.
"Our actions in partnership with the Council of Europe will contribute to the implementation of key reforms in the country, for the benefit of the citizens. The goal is to reform the justice sector and to prevent and combat threats to the rule of law," the head of the EU delegation to Moldova, Peter Michalko, said.
The second project, with a budget of 655,000 euro, aims to strengthen the Equality Council´s practice, to improve the courses provided by the Lawyers Training Centre, and to enhance the capacity of judges and prosecutors to deliver high quality justice – in particular in discrimination cases – by applying European standards. It will be implemented via training courses, round tables, conferences and other capacity-building activities.
The EU provides 80% of the funding of the two projects, while the Council of Europe will cover 20% and is in charge of their implementation.
In addition to these two country-specific projects, Moldova is also taking part in four regional projects aimed at fighting against economic crimes, strengthening the profession of lawyers, combating discrimination and facilitating access of women to justice with a total budget of 2.4 million euro.
In April 2014, the EU and the Council of Europe agreed that targeted co-operation activities with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus – the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries – would be implemented under the Partnership for Good Governance programme.
The first phase of the programme started in 2015 and was completed in 2018; the second phase of the programme was launched in 2019 and will run until 2021.
These co-operation activities aim to strengthen the capacity of the Eastern Partnership countries, which are member States of the Council of Europe, with the exception of Belarus, to implement domestic reforms to bring them closer to European standards in the fields of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
($= 0.9092 euro)