Exchange of information and experience between judicial training institutions, in particular in the areas of initial and continuing training of judges and prosecutors was the main purpose of the visit of representatives of the National Institute of Justice to the Centre for Legal Studies (CEJ) in Lisbon, Portugal. The transfer of expertise was carried out thanks to the Council of Europe within the joint EU-CoE project "Support for justice reform in the Republic of Moldova".
Between December 12-13, 2023, the delegation of the National Institute of Justice – heads of subdivisions, trainers and an exponent of the Ministry of Justice – led by Ecaterina Popa, ad interim Director, along with representatives of the Council of Europe – Head of the Unit within Division of Co-operation Programmes, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards Department, and Diana Cealic, senior project officer, had a series of discussions with CEJ Director, seconded judge of the Supreme Court, Fernando Vaz Ventura, and with heads of departments, trainers (posted judges and prosecutors), IT specialists, etc.
During the meetings, topics related to positive aspects and the most important challenges in the justice sector in both countries were addressed. Representatives of the National Institute of Justice were particularly were interested in the processes of enrolment and training of future judges and prosecutors, including simulation, recruitment/selection/employment/assessment of trainers, as well as the practice of conducting continuous training courses for judges and prosecutors. Also, the ways of integrating information technologies in initial and continuous training were explained, including the structure of online learning platforms.
In context, we mention that one of the components of the joint project of the European Union and of the Council of Europe „Support for the justice reform in the Republic of Moldova” refers to the optimization of the judicial training of the NIJ beneficiaries through internal processes that enable the transparent and impartial selection of candidates to the position of judge and public prosecutor and by strengthening training capacities, in accordance with TAIEX 2022 recommendations.
