Transposition of the European Union anti-corruption instruments into the practice and legislation of the Republic of Moldova

The research comes from a desire to scientifically contribute to improving the situation in the fight against corruption, by arguing the need to create a specialized court in examining corruption and related cases, called the Anti-Corruption Court (or, in a better way – the Anti-Corruption Tribunal). On July 26, 2023, the President of the Republic of Moldova makes use of its right to legislative initiative and sends to the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova the Draft Law on the Anti-Corruption Judicial System and Amendments to Certain Normative Acts (issue number01-06-46). And on November 30, 2023, the Parliament voted in the first reading the Draft Law on the Anti-Corruption Judicial System and Amendments to Certain Normative Acts.The second reading never happened. For the moment, on June 1, 2025, the creation of the Anti-Corruption Court remains at the level of a beautiful dream…but shuttered. The legislator of the Republic of Moldova decided to opt for the path of least resistance. Instead of Anti-Corruption Court, it is proposed to establish specialized anti-corruption colleges, which will operate at the Chisinau District Court (composed of 15 judges), the Chisinau Court of Appeal (composed of 6 judges) and the Supreme Court of Justice.During the period of April 29-30, 2025, a delegation of the Venice Commission carried out a fact-finding to the Republic of Moldova. The purpose of the visit was an extremely important one for the anti-corruption future of our country – to develop a follow-up opinion on the draft law on the anti-corruption judicial system and to amend some normative acts.In order to capitalize on the results of scientific research, we come up with a draft law, tocreate the Anti-Corruption Court (Anti-Corruption Tribunal), with competences to examine 3 fundamental cases: 1) Grand corruption; 2) Electoral corruption with equivalent damage of over 500 Euros; 3) Bank fraud with equivalent damage of over 100.000 Euros.