Activity of the Parliament on November 4–17, 2002

November 4–8, 2002

Parliament was very productive during the said period, it examined and adopted several legal acts, some of major importance for the society at large.

Legal acts adopted in the final reading

Law on the Notary

As compared to the current law and the draft law developed by the Government, the Law adopted by the Parliament brings such novelty as:

state notary institution;
abolishing the assistant notary position;
licensing of the notary activity;
abolishing Notary Union monopoly and its abusive rights;
exemptions and discounts for the notary services provided to socially vulnerable strata of the society;
establishing a ceiling of the extra charges levied by the notary, according to a methodology approved by the Parliament;
abolishing judiciary tax;
abolishing Notary Chambers and their rights, etc.

Given the fact that the notary activity has been a controversial subject since the adoption of this law, it would be interesting to follow on how the law shall be enforced and on its impact on the notary in general, and public money in particular. Also it would be interesting how authorities would establish the state notary institution, given the bureaucracy and corruption associated with that position 4–5 years ago.

After adopting the Law on Notary the Parliament amended the Fiscal Code. Under the amendments notary services are no longer considered entrepreneurial activities and only private notary shall be subject to taxation.

Law on compensating the difference between the tariffs on energy and natural gas for the residents to the left of Dniester river

The law provides that until the elimination of the consequences of the Transdnistrian conflict for the residents of Cocieri, Pirita, Cosnita, Dorotskaia and Molovata Noua villages, they would receive a compensation for the difference between the tariffs on energy and natural gas approved by the National Agency for Energy Regulation and those approved by the Tiraspol administration in the limits (energy — 60 kwh per month; natural gas — 8 m³ per month).

Laws on ratification of international acts

The Parliament ratified the following:

Addendum to the Agreement between the Government of Romania and Government of the Republic of Moldova on the long-term loan, signed in 1993 and amended in 2000.

Under the Addendum, Republic of Moldova debts worth 3 million USD were converted as Romania’s payment to Moldovan telecommunication companies relaying Romanian 1 TV Channel.

By ratifying the Agreement on the eve of the protest rallies demanding the relay of the Romanian TV Channel to be resumed, the Parliament probably intended to thwart the protests. At the same time it may well happen that the relay of the Romanian TV station wouldn’t be resumed, for various technical reasons, which are so easy to find.
European Agreement on remitting the dead bodies. Under the agreement the formalities for remitting the bodies were greatly simplified for the state members to the Agreement. Currently, besides numerous tiresome formalities transportation of a body into the country costs from 3,000 to 5,000 Euro.
Convention between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and Government of Canada on avoiding double taxation and preventing fiscal evasions.

Law on modification of legal acts related to Prosecution

Under the law, an Anti-Corruption Department shall be established within the Prosecution of the Republic of Moldova. One of the Departments’ main functions would be overseeing how the Center for Fighting Corruption and Economic Crime observes the legal framework.

Legislative acts adopted in the first reading (not final)

Draft law on migration

Under the new law a Migration Department shall be established within the Government to oversee the migration flow. In addition the Department shall design a single recording and monitoring system of the refugees stationed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova.

Draft law on normative acts issued by the Government and other local and central public bodies

The draft law is aimed to ensure a better quality and efficiency of the acts issued by the Government, central and local public administration bodies. Normative act is defined as a legal act providing binding rules to be repeatedly applied to an undetermined number of identical situations.

The elaboration of such a draft was determined by the Law on Legal Acts, providing that the Government should define its own rules of issuing normative acts.

Law on modifying Article 4 of the Law on State Tax

Under the draft, central public administration bodies shall be exempted of the obligation to pay the state tax when defending in court state patrimonial interests. There are many controversial opinions on the draft, however experience of many countries proved that the mechanism works. Nevertheless, it does not exclude abuse of power by public administration officers.

November 11–15, 2002

During the said period the Parliament examined several important pieces of legislation.

Legal acts adopted in final reading

Law on distribution of copies of literary works and phonograms

A significant modification was operated to the draft law since its adoption in the first reading, namely the number of control signs to be ordered by the Parliament was increased from 500,000 to 1000,000,000 given the high number of turnover. It remains to be seen if the Moldovan distributors would comply with the imposed regulations.

Law on measures to be undertaken to improve economic and financial situation of the zoo-technical enterprises

Under the law the debts payable by the zoo-technical enterprises for the credits taken, as well as debts payable to the state budget shall be frozen for a 5 year period. In addition, it was decided to cancel the penalties and fines accrued for the failure to pay the debts to the state budget. Furthermore the Parliament decided to exempt the said enterprises from all the payments due to the state budget for a 3-year term. A total of 30 enterprises would benefit of the said exemptions.

The Parliament recommended local public administration bodies to freeze the debts (taxes due to the local budgets) of the said enterprises, based on bilateral contracts to be concluded. Deputies decided to support enterprises, whose activity was halted, and whose poor economic and financial situation is due to poor management and inconsistency of the reforms in the field.

Law on modification of the Land Code

Under the modifications, agricultural plots reserved for the social development of the rural localities shall be transferred into the private property of the “families in which neither of the members received a land plot”. The phrase was modified in such a manner as to allow only one member of the family to receive the plots. The modification was aimed to solve the problem with the families that received several plots, latter on difficult to withdraw.

Law on modification and completion of the Telecommunication Law

The President refused to promulgate the law and recommended liberalizing IP telephony services. Consequently, the Parliament ruled to preserve Moldtelecom monopoly on providing domestic and international call services, except for IP telephony, until December 31, 2003.

The law puts an end on the controversial state monopoly on IP telephony services. International financial organizations also lobbied for the liberalization of the said services. Furthermore they set liberalization as one of the conditions to be met by the Moldovan authorities for receiving the next tranches of the credit.

Law on the state budget for 2003

The Parliament examined the most important financial law during a record period. The usual legislative forum debates, which used to accompany the adoption of the law, this time have been transferred to the special commission assigned to finalize the law, including among others opposition and independent deputies.

The Parliament didn’t significantly change the original draft. Although declared to be socially oriented, a significant increase of allocations to the Forces Ministries was registered.

Legal acts adopted in the first reading or rejected

Law on modification of the Law on Political Parties and Other Socio-Political Organizations

The said draft law was developed and submitted by the Christian-Democratic Peoples’ Party. It envisages the increase of the minimum number of party members required for the party registration from 5,000 to 15,000 members. Furthermore, under the draft law all political parties shall get re-registered within 3 months of the enforcement of the law.

There were controversial opinions on the law, some opposition and majority faction deputies stated that it would breach constitutional provision and democratic principles. However they brought no concrete arguments in favor of their position.

Some deputies pointed that Christian-Democrats and Communists were trying to monopolize political spectrum and hinder the appearance of new players. It seems that they are right given the recent increase in the threshold of representation and intended increase of the minimum party members.

It remains to be seen whether the draft law would be further modified or whether Council of Europe would be satisfied with its adoption.

The Parliament rejected the draft law on access to environmental information

The draft law was submitted back in 1996. Ilia Trombitski Chairperson of “Biotica” NGO developed it. The Parliament rejected the draft on the grounds that a similar law, namely Law on Access to Information was passed in 2000. If necessary, the Parliament would later on include a separate chapter on access to environmental information in the Law on Access to Information.

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