Activity of the Government on January 16–31, 2006

Appointments

The Government has given green light to a proposal of the Foreign and European Integration Ministry to appoint Mr. Iulian Grigorita as general consul of Moldova to Germany based in the city of Frankfurt pe Main. Previously, Grigorita was the second secretary of the Moldovan Embassy to Germany and held diplomatic posts in the central administration of the Foreign and European Integration Ministry of Moldova.

The executive has confirmed Valentin Beniuc as rector of the Institute of International Relations of Moldova and Victoria Melnic as rector of the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts. It confirmed them on basis of results of contests held by senates of these educational institutions. It should be noted that opposition parliamentarians had earlier submitted interpellations to the Government in connection with delayed organisation of a contest for the post of rector of the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts, as well as with its decisions that favoured the Moldovan Institute of International Relations that former education minister Valentin Beniuc had founded and headed previously.

Decisions

Decision on approval of the draft law for modification and completion of the law on Government. The Government’s draft law proposes the creation of the Ministry of Local Public Administration, which could be in charge with “coordination of local public administration sector, insurance of efficient cooperation between central and local public administration,” according to officials of the governmental administration. It is expected that the new ministry takes over a part of functions from the Agency for Regional Development and National Bureau for Migration. The executive will work out the structure, functions and regulation of functioning of the new ministry after this law is adopted.

Many experts consider that this decision of executive is adopted at the initiative of the chief of state without preliminary in-depth analyses, and this fact may create deficiencies for its promotion and implementation. Thus, the new ministry will monitor a limited field — of local public administration, unlike similar structures from other states, which are in charge with the entire professional public administration. From that reason, it seems that the draft was not coordinated enough with the Council of Europe and its specialised bodies, which can interpret the new ministry as a new try to influence and control the local power.

The fact that the Government has recently approved the strategy on central public administration reform, which calls for implementation of some mechanisms of decentralisation, reorganisation and optimisation of central public administration, also indicated the inopportunity of this draft. The creation of the new ministry is not stipulated express by the reform strategy and it seems to be a “parallel” measure for principles and goals established and consulted with international bodies for drafting of this document.

The insurance of activity of the new ministry would require both the amendment of the law on Government and of the law on local public administration, law on status of lawmaker, law on administrative solicitor’s office, and law on normative documents of the Government and other authorities of local and centre public administration (if the present territorial offices of the governmental administration will pass to the structure of the new ministry), while the law on migration shall be modified and a series of national strategy (EGPRSP, Moldovan Village Programme) shall be reviewed in order to establish the place and tasks of the new ministry for their implementation, if taking into account that some functions of other governmental structures will be taken over.

Decision on prolongation of the term of confirmation of Moldovan citizenship. The Government has modified its previous decision # 959 of September 9, 2005 on measures to ensure the confirmation of citizenship and documentation of population from localities on the left bank of the Dniester River (Transnistria), prolonging the term for its enforcement until July 1, 2006 (the term was earlier established until January 1, 2006). This document stipulates the possibility to confirm the Moldovan citizenship by applying the necessary stamp on identity documents, as well as to issue identity documents of Moldova (one time) to people who were registered in localities from the left bank of the Dniester River (Transnistria) on September 10, 2005 for free.

The need of modification is not publicly announced, but it may be presumed that it was determined by the low number of persons who applied for issuing of these documents and too short initial period offered by authorities for this purpose.

Decision on recognition of Ukraine’s right to property. The Government of the Republic of Moldova has recognised the right to property of Ukraine on some objects in Moldova’s territory (a part of an irrigation system in the south of Moldova and a water pipe in the Stefan-Voda district). This decision was taken in compliance with the August 11, 1994 intergovernmental agreement on mutual recognition of rights and regulation of property relations. Under this agreement, every side recognises the right of the other side, of citizens and individuals from this country to ownership of enterprises, institutions, organisations and other objectives located in its territory, which were under authority of the state leadership bodies of the other party on December 1, 1990, as well as of those that represent the estate of businesses and individuals.

Moldova has asked Ukraine to recognise the right to property on more than 140 objectives and the documents on recognition of several enterprises and sanatoriums have been completed until now. The Moldovan prime minister has recently regretted the situation concerning this issue, especially as regards the condition of bankrupt wineries based in Ukraine. Vasile Tarlev has solicited the sending of a new request to the governmental and local authorities of Ukraine, the inclusion of these issues in the agenda of a sitting of the Moldovan-Ukrainian commission for commercial-economic cooperation. The official mass media did not report if the Moldovan premier has tackled the problem of recognition of properties in the neighbouring state with his Ukrainian counterpart while on a recent visit to Kiev.

Positive conclusion to proposal on amendment of the Election Code. The executive gave green light to a draft law on amendment of the Election Code, which obliges candidates to present a health certificate along with other documents indicated by Article 44 of the Election Code for registration. Press releases on this topic do not provide details about composition of the draft submitted by a group of lawmakers representing the Moldovan Communist Party (PCRM) and it was not made available to the public, but it can be said with certainty that there are some serious obstacles on way of adoption besides the unclear technical issues.

Introduction of this provision may have many negative effects, including possibilities of abuse from medical services, electoral bodies, as well as creation of some premises for corruption of these institutions by ill-intentioned competitors.

From general perspective, if this regulation is introduced and has a mandatory normative composition with legal effects regarding registration of candidates, a problem of compliance of this document with constitutional and international provisions on human rights will appear. There are not enough guarantees concerning the moral protection of person, while data from medical certificates can be delivered to mass media and can be used by competitors.

Decision on approval of the draft law on access to official documents. Under the draft approved by executive, regulations that orders the publishing of these documents in the Internet within maximum three days after signing and registration will be introduced in the law on mode of publication and enforcement of official documents.

It should be mentioned that the need of a free access to official documents from legislative base of the country is mentioned for quite a long time, but the tries of this kind had an unorganised, informal nature until now or stipulated the purchase of some expensive special programme and subscriptions. A group of lawmakers representing the Democratic Party of Moldova unveiled a draft law on free online access to legislative and normative documents of Moldova in September 2005, but the parliamentary majority and Government turned down the document, preferring the drafting of a new document that the Parliament shall examine at the spring session. However, the simple adoption of the law would not have the effect of implementation because the Government would have to ensure later the publishing of all legislative and normative documents with free online access (through the Justice Ministry, which keeps the official record of legislation), and this thing requires the elaboration out and maintenance of a special soft, a qualified and well-paid personnel, a website providing a rapid access, etc. Competitors could resist, especially editors of Monitorul Oficial and organisations that sell updated legal databases, which would lose many clients.

The website www.justice.md was recently launched to provide the possibility to consult the Moldovan legislation, but the programme is being tested and it has a lot of shortcomings. However, the fact that the problem is being tackled at governmental level is welcome, being a step forward insurance of access to public information, consolidation and affirmation of the state based on the rule of law.

Sittings. Decisions. Declarations

Declaration on normalisation of situation in the Transnistrian region

The document released on January 23 reconfirms the fulfilment of commitments assumed through the December 30, 2005 agreement between Moldovan and Ukrainian governments regarding the conduct of an efficient control at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. At the same time, the Government informs about modification of its previous decisions with the purpose to restore the simplified record procedures for businesses based on the left bank of the Dniester River and to award some facilities for duties they pay for import-export operations.

The executive calls on participants in the negotiation process in the same declaration and asks them “them back the efforts of the Moldovan and Ukrainian governments to implement the agreements on conduct of an efficient control at the Moldovan-Ukrainian state border and creation of favourable conditions for activity of businesses based in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.”

On January 25, 2006, when the agreement between the two governments regarding border control should take effect, the Tiraspol authorities first and representatives of the United States later, followed by Kiev officials said that the understanding is suspended for an indefinite period. Reintegration Minister Vasile Sova commented the situation on behalf of the Chisinau Government, saying that provisions of the December 30, 2005 document “will continue to be implemented,” but noted that there are “some technical problems in implementing the export-import process on basis of Moldovan customs specimens,” which will be discussed at a meeting of experts in late January.

Implementation of proposals of businessmen

The deputy chairman of the Economic Council of the cabinet of ministers, Iacob Tihman, told a sitting convoked by Premier Vasile Tarlev that the Government has succeeded the implementation of “almost half” of proposals tabled at the business forum “Investment Climate in Moldova” through concrete action and normative documents. The progress is related to implementation of the regulatory reform and fiscal administration policy, with Tihman saying that the problem of many controls of state bodies has almost disappeared. Governmental officials said that other proposals of businesspersons will be taken into consideration to draft the spending framework for 2007–2009.

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