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Activity of the Parliament on March 25 – April 7, 2002

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March 25–29, 2002

During the week, only one plenary session of the Parliament was held, which was probably the longest one in the history of the Parliament elected in the 2001 parliamentary elections. It took deputies 3 hours of legislative activity and about the same time for debating on the political situation, namely Parliament Appeal to the Citizens of the Country with regard to the Great National Assembly. After long debates, breaks and “linguistic and political” editing, to which participated all the deputies willing to express their point of view, the Parliament unanimously passed the said Appeal calling citizens of the country to refrain from unauthorized protest rallies.

As for Parliament legislative activity, it was more productive, although few final decisions were passed.

Legislative acts adopted in the final reading

Law on modification and completion of the Law on Join Stock Companies

The relevant law was adopted by Parliament at the beginning of winter session and included new provisions on:

The President of the Republic of Moldova sent back the law for Parliament reexamination, pointing to:

During the final reading the Parliament took into account all the President’s objections and recommendations.

Legal acts adopted in the first (not-final) reading

Draft law on modification and completion of the Ground Code

The examination of the draft law was accompanied by hot debated in Parliament, as the parliamentary opposition claims that the amendments mean a forceful return to collective farms, whereas the majority faction insists on the amendments as a measure to stop the agriculture decline and land fund ruining. Even earlier, when the draft was developed representatives of the international funding organizations expressed their concern with regard to the inconsistency of the provisions with the market economy principles and free enterprise. Furthermore, at the end of 2001 IMF released a statement saying that the adoption of the draft may hinder resuming foreign financial assistance to Moldova. Thus, the Government had to negotiate and coordinate with IMF the content of the draft law.

In brief, the amendments refer to:

Unification of the plots requires a set of legal and technical measures so as to optimize the size and location of plots. Those were the provisions, which raised the opposition criticism. According to them, the amendments will violate the rights of plot holders and will force them via legal and administrative measures to unify the plots. At the same time, the authors of the draft law claim that the criticism is groundless as the amendments stipulate the right of the plot holder to refuse at any time the unification of plots, even if the unification procedures had already started.

Draft law on modification and completion of the Law on Constitutional Court

The draft provides a new more efficient mechanism of enforcing Constitutional Court ruling, as well as new provisions on:

The issue of legal and natural entities’ liability for the failure to execute the Constitutional Court rulings was largely debated in Parliament. Though several key factors were not taken into account:

  1. Liability of the legal entities is not stipulated in the Republic of Moldova law.
  2. It is unclear how the Parliament, Government or President may be held liable, if they are legal entities bearing exclusively a political responsibility and may neither be held responsible nor obliged to pass an act even for the sake of enforcing a ruling issued by a Constitutional Court.

During the debates, the Deputy Speaker stated that even the Constitutional Court, formed of 6 judges, may be sometimes wrong in its rulings, given the fact that the Parliament, composed of 101 deputies, may be mistaken sometimes, not to speak about 6 people. This statement together with the recommendation to establish a procedure of overcoming the definite, absolute and binding character of the Constitutional Court rulings has already been largely commented on in press. Even the Chair of the Constitutional Court expressed his disapproval and stated that CC ruling should be binding.

Noteworthy, several things happened as a result of the debates:

  1. A deputy questioned the competence of the 6 judges of the Constitutional Court. The court previously established a penalty for a similar deed to the Chair of the Republic of Moldova Bar Association;
  2. The same deputy decided firstly to publicly express his opinion and later on order a thorough examination of the possibilities to operate modifications to the legislation. Although entitled to legislative initiative a deputy may proffer a draft law for the revision of the Constitution and of the procedure of overseeing the constitutionality of the legislative acts, only upon the positive notice of the Constitutional Court;
  3. On the other hand, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, who might take part in the examination of the draft law on the Constitution revision, already stated that he considers the current mechanism should be preserved. Upon the examination of the draft he would definitely vote against it. The chances of Deputy Speaker are very slim considering that as a rule the Chair of the session (usually the Chair of the Constitutional Court) is entitled to “two votes” upon parity of votes (under Article 66 paragraph (5) of the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction), despite the fact that the Court has previously ruled that nobody is entitled to 2 votes and even annulled the decisive vote of the Parliament Speaker.

Deputy Speaker’s words might have a political connotation as well. The opposition (after receiving positive notice to their appeals on the constitutionality of legislative acts passed by the incumbent governing) stated that the Constitutional Court is “one of the very few institutions which preserved its independence”, whereas certain international organizations expressed their “satisfaction with the CC rulings”. Under those circumstances the intention to overcome the absolute character of the CC rulings may be interpreted as authorities’ attempt to undermine the constitutional jurisdiction.

Further, above mentioned declarations show disrespect to the President’s appeal calling all the state institutions and high rank officials to abide the ruling of the Constitutional Court outlawing early local elections.

Draft law on the completion of the Fiscal Code

The relevant draft introduces new excises for the petroleum derivatives (diesel oil, oils, and kerosene, etc.). According to preliminary estimates, around 130,000 tones of such products are imported every year to the Republic of Moldova, whereas the payment of excises for their import will considerably increase the state budget.

On the other hand, the importers protest against those initiatives on the grounds that Ukraine and Transdnistria have recently lowered the taxes for the import of petroleum and its derivatives, which could lead to an increased smuggling of those products into Moldova.

Draft law on cooperative production society

The draft was developed to regulate the activity of the organized forms of productions. According to the draft, the cooperative production society is defined as “company set up by at least 10 natural entities to conduct a joint production activity, based on individual work of its members and joint capital”. The draft includes provisions on:

Law on the recovery measures of the zootechnic companies

The draft provides freezing for a five year period the debts of the zootechnic enterprises (failure to pay back credits for the fodder) and sanctions calculated for the failure to make timely payments to the state budget. It also provides exempting the zootechnic enterprises from all the payments to the state budget.

Several deputies pointed that the provisions only recommend local public administration and businessmen to annul and spread out the debts of the said companies and are not binding, therefore they may not be inserted in the law.

The Parliament continued to examine the Civil Code and adopted the Penal Code in the second reading

Also in the first reading were adopted:

April 1–5, 2002

Upon the expiration of the time allotted by the protestors to authorities for their resignation, the organizers of the protest rallies decided to change the location of protests. The tent town moved in front of the Presidency and Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. Despite the non-stop pickets, loud music and anti-government slogans chanted by the protestors, the deputies continued their activity and managed to examine several draft laws, some them of special importance.

Legislative acts adopted in the final reading

The Civil Code of the Republic of Moldova was adopted in the third and final reading

In its final version the Civil Code will include around 1600 articles structured in 5 chapters. It is worth mentioning the stages in drafting the Civil Code of the Republic of Moldova:

  1. The Parliament Resolution on the Parliament activity in view of enforcing Constitution provisions and those of the Concept of judiciary reform, provided for the drafting of the Civil Code;
  2. Via the Parliament Resolution no.254-XIII of November 3, 1994 a working group was established to draft the Civil Code;
  3. Via the President Decree no.228 of July 7, 1997 an international expert group was established to provide a comprehensive expertise and finalize the draft Civil Code;
  4. Via the Government Resolution no. 160 of February 23, 2000 working groups were established to ensure correlation of the draft Codes (developed in a new wording), including the draft Civil Code.
  5. Via the Parliament Resolution no. 1315 of October 26, 2000 a special commission was established to finalize the Civil Code.

The draft Civil Code was examined during 2001, beginning of 2002. The Legal Commission of the Parliament submitted for examination in Parliament 5 Chapters of the Civil Code, which were adopted in the final reading on April 5, 2002.

With regard to the so quick adoption of such an important piece of legislation by the XV legislature Parliament, we could point the following:

Resolution on adopting the Concept of military reform

The draft was developed in 2000, whereas its examination was adjourned for a long time without any particular reason. The Concept adopted by the Parliament:

  1. defines the notions, principles and key conditions of the military reform;
  2. describes the background for the military reform;
  3. indicates the goal and priorities of the reform and procedures of its implementation;
  4. sets the stages in caring the military reform, a total of 12 years.
Law on the modification and completion of legal acts on judiciary institutions

Under the law, the Economic College is to be established within the Supreme Court of Justice, which is to examine the appeals on the decisions issued by the Economic Court of the Republic of Moldova. In addition, the number of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice has been increased, and a new position established, namely Deputy Chair of the Supreme Court of Justice, which is to examine the economic litigation.

Law on completing the Law on Government

Under the law an Agronomy & Industry Department Moldova-Vin is established in the subordination of the Government. The responsibilities of the newly established department include: developing the strategy on and projecting the development of the winery industry, enforcing new economic mechanisms, drafting a program for the development of wine market, administering wine brands in the state property, etc.

Law on allotting a plot from the Chisinau Municipality into the municipal property

Under the law a plot of 2,5 hectare is allotted for the construction of Bus Station for the North Region. The new station is intended to redirect the traffic and ensure a normal traffic in the center of Chisinau.

Law on completing the Fiscal Code

The law sets excise to the petroleum derivatives used in the household as well as in industry.

Legal acts adopted in the first (not-final) reading

Draft law on theatres, circuses and concert halls

The draft law establishes the basic principles for the activity of theatres, circuses and concert halls, as well as founding, administering, funding, reorganizing, and liquidating procedures.

The draft includes several chapters: General Provisions; The system of theatres, circuses and concert halls; Regulating the activity of the said institutions; Employees’ social benefits, and International cooperation.

Draft law on the modification of Article 1553 of the Criminal Code

Currently the Criminal Code provides liability for inappropriate use of credits, for the failure to pay the credits and interests. The authors of the initiative claim that the provision runs counter to the international law, and therefore have stipulated criminal liability for the failure to meet civil obligations.

Parliament examined a draft law on modification of the Electoral Code

The amendments refer in particular to:

  1. compulsory participation of the voters in elections;
  2. mixed electoral system for parliamentary elections;
  3. majority electoral system for local elections;
  4. regulating in detail constitutional referenda.

Several flaws have been identified during the examination of the draft law in Parliament, therefore it was sent back Legal Commission for improvement.

It is worth mentioning that the draft raised a lot of debates. Consequently, the issue of modifying electoral system will be in the center of attention for a while. The Parliament will reconsider the draft in the nearest future or the latest on the eve of parliamentary elections.

March 11–24, 2002 April 8–21, 2002