Activity of the Parliament on March 10–23, 2003

March 10–14, 2003

Council of Europe monitoring mission has influenced to a large extent authorities’ agenda. Moldovan authorities have kept some of the previously assumed to enforce PACE resolutions, by adopting a number of legal acts of paramount importance, namely the Law on the Code of Penal Procedure, Law on Prosecution, final amendments to the Law on “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company, which was brought in accordance with the Council of Europe recommendations.

At the recommendation of Council of Europe experts, the Parliament adopted in the first reading amendments to the Law on Deputy Status, Law on Judge Status and the Law on Local Public Administration, which was tailored to the recommendations of the Congress of Local and Regional Powers. The latter would be examined during an extraordinary Parliament session.

An outline of other legal acts examined by the Parliament is provided below.

Code of Penal Procedure

Under the Concept of Judiciary Reform adopted in 1994, the Code of Penal Procedure was to be one of the first laws to be adopted immediately after the Constitution. The adoption of the law was among the engagements undertaken by the Republic of Moldova upon joining Council of Europe.

In the eight years to follow, several working groups were established to draft the Code. In year 2000 the Code was adopted in the first reading, however its adoption in the final reading was pending the adoption of a new Penal Code. It is worth mentioning that last year the Parliament adopted a new Penal Code, however its enforcement was conditioned this time on the enforcement of the Code of Penal Procedure, otherwise inconsistencies in the investigation and penal procedures would have arisen.

Last year the Constitution was amended abolishing a level of the judiciary, thus requiring a new procedure of hearing appeals.

The new Code of Penal Procedure includes a series of innovations, namely:

New principles (free access to justice, freedom to testimony against oneself, freedom to evaluate the evidences, equality of the parties in the trial, prohibition to trial twice for the same crime, as well as other principles of the modern law).
Increasing prosecutor’s role in trials, who is the one to take the decisions.
Establishing a standard term of lawsuits, comprising both preliminary investigation as well as the trial itself.
De-monopolizing preliminary investigation, which hence could be conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Information and Security Service, Customs Department and Center for Fighting Economic Crime and Corruption.
Establishing preliminary judiciary control via “instruction judge”, who would conduct all the preliminary measures (arrest, collecting evidence, etc).
Increasing the role of the counsel for defense, who is to enjoy the same rights as other participants to the trial. This aspects needs a thorough consideration as it’s importance has been cited for a long time, furthermore international organizations in the field as well as human rights groups have been insisting on it.
Establishing the procedure of release on bail. The relevant procedure has been debated for a long time, many arguments being voiced either in its favor or against.
Establishing preliminary hearings, where all the time-consuming matters are to be settled.
Allowing for the confession agreement to be concluded, hereby the parties agree on procedures, which do not need further evidence, in return for less punishment.

Noteworthy, under the new amendments to the Constitution and CE recommendations, the Code of Penal Procedure should be enforced A.S.A.P., by the end of 2003. However, upon its enforcement several problems would arise such as reforming the existing structures, professional training, and financial and technical matters.

Law on Labor Market

The law specifies the measures to be undertaken to provide new workplaces and social guarantees to the unemployed.

A special attention should be given to the incentives provided for establishing new workplaces:

credits from special funds (formed out of revenues to the state budget, unemployment fund, labor market and business development fund, donations from legal and natural entities) shall be offered under preferential conditions for establishing new workplaces;
employers hiring graduates or registered unemployed shall enjoy deductions to the fringe benefits due, over a 1 year period.

Also, the law provides that a specialized agency would train the unemployed on the jobs in demand on the market.

A new procedure of paying employment benefits has been established ranging from 50% of the average salary per economy (for a work experience of up to 5%) and up to 60% (for up to 10 years). The funds for the enforcement of the law shall be secured from the social security budget, consequently the benefits would greatly depend on the budget revenues and the quota allotted by the Parliament.

Law on amending the Law on Administrative Courts

The following amendments were operated:

Disciplinary sanctions to military shall fall within the competence of Administrative Courts.
An independent court shall estimate moral damage incurred by an illegal administrative act regardless of the material damage, by taking into account physical or psychical damage incurred, as well as other factors like pleading guilty, circumstances and social status of the plaintiff.

The modifications have been determined by the Resolution of Constitutional Court No. 46/2000 outlawing the said provisions.

Law on Consumer Protection

The Parliament passed a new Law on Consumer Protection in accordance with the international standards and provisions of the Civil Code. In particular the law includes provisions on:

Definitions of consumer, producer, seller, service-provider, service, product, quality, abusive commercial practice, counterfeit product, damage, etc.
Protection of consumer’s safety, health and security by imposing specific requirements to the producers and sellers.
Protection of consumer’s economic interests via binding contract clauses, guarantee terms, etc. Specifically for the products, which do not indicate the expiry the guarantee period shall be of 2 years.
Consumer rights are more clearly defined than in the current law.
Informing consumers on the products produced.
Sanctions to be applied for the failure to comply with the law.

The enforcement of the law is an important event for the entire society, as each natural or legal entity may be considered consumer. However, a negative reaction from businessmen is to be expected due to the harsh requirements imposed on them.

Law on the modification of the Law on Deputy Status, adopted in the first reading

The law excludes the provisions allowing for the revocation of deputy mandate. Currently, Constitutional Court may revoke a deputy’s mandate in case of incompatibility or court sentence for a criminal offence.

Needless to say, Council of Europe experts repeatedly stated that the said provisions were anti-democratic and should be revised prior to Moldova taking over the Presidency. Albeit initially experts agreed that such provisions exist in numerous countries of the world.

March 17–21, 2003

Last week was marked by several extremely important events. The first one, was the decision of the Foreign Affairs Department of the breakaway Transdnistrian Republic to declare the leadership of the Republic of Moldova, as well as several heads of departments as persona non grata. The style of the notification was rather tendentious and even ironic, as it restated almost the entire the notification of the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting Transdnistrian leaders to be banned from entering EU. Furthermore, Tiraspol leader stated that in case President Voronin sends an official letter, he would allow him to attend the football match scheduled on April 2 and would guarantee his security.

One may say that the negotiation process wouldn’t be as easy as outlined in President Voronin’s plan. Although several European organizations back up Moldovan authorities, the key decision-makers, i.e. Russia and Ukraine refrain from undertaking any measures in this respect, even if officially they make statements regretting Tiraspol’s stance.

On the other hand, the Parliament adopted some very important decisions. Firstly, the Law on Local Public Administration and Parliament Resolution on establishing the election date for May 25, 2003. Secondly, the Parliament passed the much-debated Law on Pre-shipment Inspection. Below is an outline of the most important legal acts passed by the Parliament.

Law on Local Public Administration, new wording

The law was adopted in the final reading without any debates despite the very controversial public discussions. Upon the adoption of the law it was announced that it complies with Council of Europe recommendations, especially with regard to financial autonomy, delimitation of responsibilities between the central and local power, as well as administrative control over local government.

Adoption of the said law allowed for establishing the date of general local elections, namely May 23, 2003. It is worth mentioning that according to the Electoral Code:

Central Electoral Commission shall establish electoral constituencies corresponding to the second level administrative-territorial units at least 55 days prior to elections, and district electoral councils 50 days prior to elections. Within 4 days of establishment, district electoral councils shall make public their membership, address, and contact details;
In view of the elections of local councils and mayor, each rayon, special status administrative-territorial unit, city (municipality), village (commune) shall be viewed as single constituency. City (municipal), village (commune) electoral constituencies shall be established by the district electoral councils at least 45 days prior to election day. City (municipal), village (communal) electoral councils are established by the district electoral councils of the second-level administrative-territorial units 40 days prior to election day.
Electoral councils for the election of local councils and mayors shall be divided into precincts, and electoral bureaus shall be formed for each of them.

Electoral campaign for each individual contestant shall commence on the date of his/her registration with the Central Electoral Commission or district electoral councils and shall end on the date of his/her elimination from the race or on election day.

Law on Pre-shipment Inspection

The final version of the law includes two provisions, previously viewed as being unacceptable by representatives of international monetary organizations. Under the law, two companies entitled to conduct pre-shipment inspection shall be selected based on a tender, whereas the list of goods due to be inspected shall be approved by the Parliament.

Although last week IMF mission stated it would insist on the original draft, Moldovan legislator decided to ignore them, thus endangering the disbursement of further tranches. If authorities fail to convince IMF on the rightness of the draft adopted by the Parliament, then most likely the President would not promulgate the law and would send it for the reexamination together with IMF recommendations. And this because disbursement of further tranches is a key condition for resuming the negotiations with the Paris Club. However if authorities fail to convince international monetary organizations, they might end up under the backfire of the domestic business, which is very much against pre-shipment inspection and even threatened to stage protest rallies.

Law on modification and completion of the Law on Deputy Status

Under the modifications approved, the provisions allowing for the deputy mandate to be lifted upon a court sentence or incompatibility were excluded. Noteworthy, Council of Europe experts insisted on the said provisions in order to bring Moldovan law in line with European standards.

Law on the modification of the Law on Firearms

The law prohibits issuing the license on holding firearm to individuals with previous penal records, as well as to individuals who committed an offence or crime by using firearm, explosives or toxic materials. It is worth mentioning that Parliament Resolution no. 1603 of March 17, 1998 allowed natural entities to posses firearms. The same resolution granted pardon to all persons who legalized the arms in their possession. The impact of the 1998 resolution was never made public, however we may conclude that the initiative failed. An illustration to this effect is the recent amendments to the law.

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