Prosecutor-General Jaromír Čižnár has drawn up a new set of legal amendments dealing with the prosecution service, which makes him the first person holding the post to submit such legislative proposals in 16 years, according to Pravda daily. One of the main changes is that the prosecutor-general will continue to hold his or her post until a new person is appointed, which means that the tenures could extend beyond the currently stipulated seven years. Meanwhile, a nine-member Ethics Commission will rule on the ethical behaviour of prosecutors in line with a new Ethics Code. The Ethics Commission will be able to make decisions without receiving a specific proposal, meaning that they will be allowed to launch proceedings after information is published in the media, for example.
The prosecutor-general will be able to demote prosecutors to lower-level offices if they are found to be failing to carry out their duties, while prosecutors will have to submit more detailed property declarations, including statements concerning sums borrowed or lent exceeding €6,600.
Prosecutors will no longer have their salaries frozen, and rewards for outstanding work will be reintroduced. Former justice minister Lucia Žitňanská (Most-Hid), who originally scrapped the rewards while in office, claims that they are too easy to abuse for political purposes. The prosecution service will become more open, in particular when it comes to selection procedures, but it will still be less accessible for the public than the judiciary. Lawyer Eva Kovačechová from the non-government organisation Via Iuris has criticised this, adding that there will still be a lack of public control. The amendments have been submitted for ministerial comments. If approved by the Government, they will be put before Parliament by Justice Minister Tomáš Borec because the prosecutor-general doesn't have the power to do this. If passed by Parliament, the new measures should come into effect as of January, 2016.
