Alegerile parlamentare din 2021 în Republica Moldova - alegeri.md
 Monitoring→Public Institutions→Parliament

Activity of the Parliament on March 11–24, 2002

|print version|mail|

March 11–15, 2002

On March 15, a group of young people protested in front of the Parliament against authorities’ intention to lift the parliamentary immunity of PPCD deputies. The session of the Judicial Commission of the Parliament, supposed to rule in this respect, was adjourned until the flaws pointed by PPCD deputies would be eliminated. Several problems arise with regard to the double position of Vlad Cubreacov — deputy in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and deputy in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. Not even the Chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Policy could elucidate the situation, as it is a very complicated one and without precedent.

There are a series of laws and resolutions of special interest, which we shall give a due consideration.

Law on Ratification of the Convention on money laundry, tracing and confiscation illegal income

The Convention signed in Strasbourg in 1990, provides a series of principles and procedures to be applied by the Council of Europe Member States. It is worth mentioning several of them:

  1. Terminology — definitions of “income derived from infractions”; of “goods and tools” employed for committing the offence; and of the “confiscation” methods, etc.
  2. Measures to be taken at the national level: confiscation measures; investigation and provisionary measures; special investigation techniques and jurisdiction; legal appeal; and fighting money laundry;
  3. International cooperation: principles of cooperation; assistance in investigation; disclosing information; enforcing provisionary measures of confiscation; actual coercion; refusing or postponing cooperation (grounds for refusal, partial or conditional acceptance of cooperative agreement); notification and observing the rights of the third parties; recognition of foreign rulings; legalization.
  4. 4. Request of cooperation: content, faults, concurrence of claims; obligation of motivation and information; restricted use; confidentiality, expenses, damages and interests, etc.

The major goal of the Convention is to prevent and fight the legalization of illegally obtained financial resources, namely “money laundering”. Noteworthy, at the end of 2001 the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova passed the Law no. 633-XV on Preventing and Fighting Money Laundering as well as a series of amendments to the Law on Financial Institutions, aimed to stop illegal financial and economic activities. Under Article 11 of the said law, legal and control bodies of the Republic of Moldova shall cooperate with their counterparts in other countries in preventing, tracing, and investigating money laundering as well as in confiscating and transmitting illegal money based on the legislation of the Republic of Moldova, international conventions and cooperative agreements ratified by the Republic of Moldova.

By ratifying the Convention, Moldova made the first step towards ensuring international cooperation in fighting crime.

Parliament Resolution approving the Regulation on allotting, administering and spending funds for viniculture development

The Regulation establishes the procedure for enforcing the provisions of the Law on State Budget for 2002 pertaining to the establishment of a fund for viticulture development and its administration. The fund shall be formed by transferring 15% of the excises on alcohol products up to a 13,5 million quota.

The fund shall be administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Processing Industry, which will also oversee the spending of funds together with the Ministry of Finance.

The funds will be used to partially compensate the expenses previously incurred by companies for planting winery. To benefit from compensations, the said companies will have to conclude trilateral contracts with decentralized bodies of the Ministry of Agriculture and with a viniculture processing venture operating on the soil where the business operates. If the winery was planted by a processing venture, than the contract should be bilateral. In addition, the regulation specifies the documents to be presented by the companies in order to receive financial aid from the viniculture development fund.

Law on modification and completion of the Law on Administrative Offence

A new article was added to the Code on Administrative Offence providing new administrative sanctions ranging from 10 to 100 minimal salaries for the failure to observe the legislation on sale in the market. Especially, will be sanctioned the failure to observe the provisions on quality control of the merchandise, failure to timely undergo a medical examination, allowing the sale of uncontrolled merchandise or by unauthorized persons (entrepreneurs or natural entities operating based on a license).

Resolution on establishing a working group to define the Code of Labor

In 1994 a program for implementing the Concept of Judiciary and Legal Reform was approved. In this respect, later on working groups were formed to develop the draft Codes of the Republic of Moldova and submit them for Parliament examination.

The elaboration process was stopped for several years due to the lack of remuneration to the specialists involved. Later on, funds were allotted and in 1997–1998 several draft Codes were completed, including the Code of Labor. Although it was submitted to Parliament and was approved in the first reading in 1999, the Code hasn’t been defined so far.

A series of legal and socio-political events have happened since the Code was drafted. Consequently the Code includes provisions of the international law on working relations and social security of the employees, employer — employee relations, employee — trade union relations, trade unions — employers — Government relations, etc.

The Parliament formed the working group including experts of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, University professors, experts from the two trade union federations of the Republic of Moldova, which will have to define the draft Code of Labor within two months and submit it for the Parliament examination.

The I and II Chapter of the Civil Code of the Republic of Moldova

Recent efforts in defining the new Civil Code could be explained by the fact that the adoption of the Code is one of the most important conditions set forth by the international financial institutions for resuming crediting Republic of Moldova.

Of course it is practically impossible to adopt an act of such a complexity on such a short notice, as the IMF is demanding, but we should bear in mind that Moldova has tried to adopt a new Civil Code for 6 years. The Parliament will strive to meet the engagements it has undertaken. Still, there is no guarantee that international organizations will resume crediting Moldova upon the adoption of the Code, that is why we might end with no credits, but with a complex law adopted in a hurry and with a lot of flaws.

Law on financial-economic recovery of the “Fabrica de vin Cojusna” winery and the Law on Canceling the Historic Debts of the Carabinier Department of the Ministry of Interior to the state budget

For further details on the law please see ADEPT legislative commentary of March 4–8, 2002.

March 18–22, 2002

On March 20, one year passed since the first session of the XV legislature Parliament and of the Communist governing. Immediately after the parliamentary elections, at the time he was elected the President of the Republic of Moldova, the Communist Party leader stated that he would be open to cooperation with all political and social players of the country, and would be the President of “all the people”, not merely of his voters. One year later, the President of the Republic of Moldova launched the idea of a Social Pact.

President’s meetings with the representatives of the civil society overshadowed Parliament’s activity. During the week the Parliament continued to examine important normative acts, which we shall consider bellow.

Legislative acts adopted in the final reading

Law on modification and completion of the Law on Petroleum Market

We have previously presented the law. As predicted, significant changes have occured:

Experts claim that Communists operated the amendments so as to keep the promise made to the petroleum importers and traders, who at the end of 2001 staged protest rallies against the adoption and enforcement of the law by the Government. At that time authorities accused the traders and importers of smuggling.

At the same time, big petroleum importers and traders might be dissatisfied with the operated amendments, as they were the ones who lobbied the law in the first place so as to secure protection against unloyal competition.

In the end the President will be the one to promulgate the law and thus endorse the majority faction, or not and send it for re-examination of the Parliament and thus endorse the existence of petroleum security stocks.

The Law on Ratification of the European Convention on suppression of authentication of legal acts issued by the diplomatic or consular institutions

Current integration processes, when the great majority of Europeans freely travel from one country to another based on the original acts issued by the national diplomatic and consular institutions, dictated the need to ratify the convention.

Also, the migration processes have been taken into account. For instance, besides the necessary official acts of the Republic of Moldova, legal (and illegal) immigrants from the Republic of Moldova also had to authenticate the documents required by the relevant legislation in their country of destination. Those procedures are not only expensive but also complicated and exhausting that is why Council of Europe Member States decided to simplify them.

The relevant Convention stipulates the obligation of member states to exempt from authentication the acts issued by diplomatic or consular institutions of the contracting state. Especially the Convention applies to official certificates containing references to the registration of a document or event on a certain date.

Noteworthy the Convention includes an interesting provision from the international law perspective, as it sets its supremacy over the provisions of any treaty, conventions or agreements regulating or which would regulate the authentication of a diplomat or consul signature, document signer function, and authenticated seal or stamp.

Law on the Ratification of the Agreement on the establishment of International Winery Organization (IWO)

The ratification was determined by the fact that since 1994 Moldova has been a member of the International Winery Office established in 1924 and active until 2001.

On April 3, 2001 General Assembly of the above Office adopted an Agreement on the establishment of the International Winery Organization. To confirm their membership and to adhere to the Agreement, each country has to ratify it.

Upon the examination of the law in Parliament, debates focussed not on the content of the agreement or mandate of the organization, but rather on who should pay the membership fees. As it was pointed during the Parliament session, membership fee would be paid out of the funds allotted for the winery industry support. It is not clear yet who would transfer money to the fund — the state or the entrepreneurs active in the field.

Law on the Modification of the Law on Entrepreneur License

The modification completes the list of activities to be conducted based on a license with the following: general retail shop, bakery, bottled water, domestic products, and books retail shop, etc.

The respective law exempts beneficiaries from the obligation to purchase cash registers, to register as entrepreneur, and to pay taxes and fees. They would have to pay just the license fee.

Legislative acts adopted in the first (not final) reading

Law on completion of legal acts pertaining to direct taxation and customs fee payment

The law exempts the goods imported in the Republic of Moldova from the VAT tax and from the fee on the services of pre-dispatch inspection.

By adopting the law, the Government and Parliament intend to solve the problem of pre-dispatch inspection of goods imported in the Republic of Moldova, which triggered protests among the business community. As pre-dispatch inspection was one of the conditions imposed by international institutions, the Government cannot immediately annul the contract with SGS. On the other hand the business community claims that the inspection greatly affects the current economic situation and that no foreign credits or aid would improve it.

In an attempt to avoid the extremes the Government is looking for other solutions and sets forth a new draft law decreasing the final cost of the SGS services.

It remains to be seen what would be the reaction of the business community, which followed the example of the protest rallies on the National Assembly Square and set an ultimatum — annulment of the contract with SGS, otherwise the confrontations between authorities and business will continue.

Law on modification of the Penal Code and of the Code of Administrative Offence

The law provides administrative and penal liability for the deliberate delay (one or two months) in paying the salaries, pensions, scholarships, indemnities and other permanent payments. Subject to the law may be high-rank officials who deliberately do not pay the salaries or use the salary funds for other purposes.

Despite the skepticism of several deputies with regard to the new regulations, because there are no efficient mechanisms of punishment, parliament majority decided to operate the amendments. Noteworthy, the amendments were operated at the time of protest rallies organized by the trade unions. Trade unions set forth an ultimatum on the payment of arrears to the salaries and doubling the current salaries.

February 25 – March 10, 2002 March 25 – April 7, 2002