Activity of the Parliament on September 27 – October 17, 2004

Decisions

During the period covered Parliament convened on two sessions.

During the September 30 session a new Chair of the Central Electoral Commission was approved. Eugen Clim was replaced by Petru Railean as Chair of the CEC. The latter previously hold the position of Chair of the Economic Court; served in the CEC during 1995 local elections, and headed the Commission in 1996 during presidential elections. There are many reasons why a more experienced person was elected to head CEC parliamentary majority seeks to avoid any problems in elections, especially since many international organisations and civil society organisations would closely watch it.

During the same session Parliament accepted the resignation of the Vasile Pentelei Chair of the Court of Accounts, who headed the organisation since 2000. Albeit Mr. Pentelei resigned on his own will, many say he was ousted following the publication of a list of Court’s officials who had received plots for construction from Chisinau Mayoralty.

Due to the same scandal, deputy Alexandru Ciugureanu was excluded from the communist faction for “inadequate behaviour and deeds inconsistent with the status of elected official”. Mr. Ciugureanu was also in the list of those who got a plot from the Chisinau Municipality for a meagre price.

While busy cleaning the party of “unworthy elements”, ruling party did not forgot about opposition. It decided to establish a commission to investigate the legality of the assets in possession of Iurie Rosca, leader of the Christian-Democratic Peoples’ Party. In response to Mr. Rosca’ explanation that his assets were legal and that he paid taxes on them, new accusations were brought to the effect that he was involved in a money laundry scheme, as reported by Ukraine secret service.

A week later, Parliament heard Minister of Energetics, Iacob Timciuc. He assured the legislature that the heating system was ready for the cold season and that once it got cold it would start operating. Nevertheless, the Minister remained tight lipped on the fate of the indebted apartment blocks whether they would be connected to the heating system or not, and on the eventuality of Russia reducing gas supply and the risks such a move might bring given Moldova’s dependence on Gazprom.

Legal acts

Law on Recalculating Pensions

According to the Law on Recalculating Pensions, as of November 1, 2004 pensions for age limit, disability, and heir shall be recalculated. The first two will be recalculated by changing the formula. The surplus brought by recalculation should be no less than 25% of the established pension.

Under the law, as of November 1 total pension shall not be less than:

219,00 Lei — pension for age limit for former agricultural employees;
246,00 Lei — pension for age limit for other categories of pensioners;
175,00 Lei — pension for I degree disability;
169,00 Lei — pension for II degree disability;
119,00 Lei — pension for III degree disability.

It is estimated that the move would require 490 million Lei. In the eyes of many experts it is a huge mistake to take such social and election oriented moves, before having a clear picture on how well the budget for this year was enforced.

Law on Wine Sale during Wine Festival

On the eve of National Wine Holiday celebrated the third year now, deputies passed this law. It enables companies taking part in the exhibit organized as part of the Wine Festival to sell en detail their products without any license being needed. The maximum amount established was 2 thousand bottles.

Law on Ratification of Memorandum of Understanding between Republic of Moldova and Denmark on Cooperation in view of Enforcing the Depolluted Development Mechanism provided for in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Under the Memorandum, Republic of Moldova would cooperate with Denmark by trading its emission quotas in exchange for technologies and projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the parties examine the possibility of undertaking projects using gas from waste and gas methane produced by “Apa-Canal” enterprise to produce electricity. Republic of Moldova joined Kyoto protocol on February 13, 2003.

Draft law on privatization of enterprises to the left of Dniester river and Bender Municipality

The draft was initiated by the President in an attempt to prevent alienation of property towards Tiraspol secessionist authorities. Previously, the Parliament passed another law, thereby it did not guarantee property rights on entities privatized without Chisinau’s prior agreement. The new draft, passed in the first reading, was supposed to define privatization procedures.

The law seeks to ensure observance of the social and property rights of the people residing on the left bank of Dniester and Bender Municipality, and prevent any infringement of their rights. The law does not apply to agricultural enterprises.

The following are entitled to take part in the privatization.

Employees of the privatized enterprise;
Former employees of the privatized enterprises at the time the law entered into force and were ousted on other grounds than infringement of the labour law, and are currently not employed;
Pensioners, who worked in the enterprise undergoing privatization before retiring;
Military, who before recruitment worked in the enterprise undergoing privatization.

Enterprises would be transferred for free into the private property of the aforesaid participants.

Privatization Agreement shall be drawn and signed by the Privatization Department representative, as representative of the public administration on the one hand; and Privatization Council, entrusted to act in the name of privatization participants on the other.

The Government is to decide on the calling and holding staff general assemblies, participants in the privatization process, decision making and distribution of shares.

Under the law, all privatization agreements that were concluded by infringing this law and other normative acts of the Republic of Moldova shall be declared null. The state would only guarantee property rights on enterprises if they were privatized in line with the Republic of Moldova law.

In the eyes of many experts the real goal of the project it to encourage employees of the Transdnistrian enterprises to take an active role and prevent alienation of property. On the other hand, the law would respond to numerous accusations coming from Transdnistria that Moldovan authorities “seek to take over the property preserved in Transdniestria”. Thus each and every employee of the enterprise would get a chance to become its cofounder, thus the state guaranteeing his/her right on the stake. So far, there was no official response to the draft from Transdniestria.

Draft law on the modification of the Code of Administrative Offence and toughening sanctions for statistics offences

The draft provides for:

Toughening sanctions for the failure to declare in due time or incorrectly of statistics data by responsible persons;
Sanctions for publishing the data provided by individuals in questionnaires, without their prior approval.

There were many allegations made by politicians that the census conducted by the Statistics Department would be used by the authorities only if they liked its results, otherwise they won’t be made public.

Law on Privatization of Enterprises to the Left of Dniester and Bender Municipality

During the first reading of the draft opposition deputies claimed the document was infringing on the rights of citizens residing to the right of Dniester and de facto “recognizes Tiraspol authorities”, however during the final reading they voiced no major objections.

Only several wording amendments were operated: afterwards deputies voted the draft in the second reading, thereby taking a very important political decision.

Noteworthy, the law was initiated by the President of the country in an attempt to prevent illegal alienation of state property in favour of Tiraspol secessionist authorities. Under the law, former and current employees of the enterprises are entitled to take part in the privatization of that particular enterprise. All privatization agreements of enterprises concluded by infringing this law as well as other normative acts of the Republic of Moldova shall be declared null and void. Therefore, the state would be able to guarantee property right on enterprises provided privatization was carried out in line with this law.

Law on Liquidation of the Legislative Centre

Via the law provisions from the Law on Government were excluded as regards Legislative Centre. The latter was entrusted to draft and endorse legal acts of the Government and Presidency. The Centre was established in 2001, when Government passed Resolution no. 842, thereby “the process of developing draft laws and other normative acts in the state administration was found unsatisfactory”.

Government approved the basic responsibilities of the Centre, its structure and funding.

Almost one year after Government decision, on July 11, 2002 Parliament passed the Law on Completing the Law on Government, thereby including Legislative Centre as part of central public administration subordinated to Government. Interestingly, Government firstly established a new structure and later asked deputies to legalize it, move that gathered a rich harvest of criticism from opposition and majority faction alike.

Following the same pattern of neglecting Parliament, on September 30, 2004 Government decided (Resolution no. 1080) to dissolve Legislative Centre as of October 2004. Its responsibilities were delegated to Ministry of Justice that would be responsible in the future for developing draft laws and draft resolutions of the Government as regards judiciary; provide legal expertise and endorse draft laws and other normative acts; perfect legislation; improve the quality of draft laws, etc.

Only on October 14, 2004 Parliament did endorse Government initiative, expressing its regret that the Centre felt short of the expectations and that legislation was still of low quality.

While examining the draft law no mention was made that it has been developed at the President’s initiative. President had personally met with the Centre employees and expressed his hope that they would fighting nepotism and departmental interest and put an end to the chaos in legislation drafting.

Law on Converting Debts of the “Cereale-Cupcini” into Securities

Under the law, historic debts of “Cereale Cupcini” (700 thousand Lei to state budget and 2.4 million Lei and 28 thousand USD to Ministry of Finance for foreign credits) were converted into state securities. Cereale-Cupcini would settle its debts to state budget and Ministry of Finance by additionally issuing securities, later to be transferred into their property. The move would enable Cereale-Cupcini to raise its registered capital.

The law does not specify what should be done with other shareholders and what compensation they would get once the value of their shares drops significantly. Apparently, the law was a good way to disguise the bankruptcy so as to avoid any alienation of property.

Draft Law on Governmental Agent — State Representative at the European Court for Human Rights

The draft passed in the first reading outlines the rules for Governmental Agent — representative of Republic of Moldova’s Government at the European Court for Human Rights, who shall operate as part of the Ministry of Justice. Under the draft, the Agent shall be appointed/ ousted by the Government, at the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice.

Candidates to the position should: have a law degree; be familiar with administrative law, human rights; be fluent in one of the two languages — English or French. He/she would:

represent the Government of the Republic of Moldova at the ECHR and exercise any other responsibility provided for in Convention of ECHR Regulation;
oversee measures adopted in view of enforcing ECHR judgements and recommend authorities measures to be taken so as to avoid any infringement of the Covenant and Additional Protocols;
inform judges, prosecutors, public officers on the ECHR jurisprudence;
at the decision of the Government, appeal to ECHR on bilateral cause.

The draft also obliges public authorities and other natural entities of the private law to submit to the Agent in due time all the documents, data and info requested by him/her.

For seven years since leaving the position, Governmental Agents would be prohibited to represent plaintiffs in cases examined by Court, if they took part in the hearings.

Draft law on modification of legal acts as regards press

The draft passed in the first reading introduces a string of amendments as regards the operation of media outlets. Under the draft, media outlets and press agencies may establish affiliated structures doing business, other than distributing copies and promotional materials as provided in the Civil Code. In such cases, the structures are registered as legal entities as provided by the Law on Entrepreneurship and Enterprises no. 845-Xll of 03.01.92.

Media outlets established as Ltd solely to disseminate advertising materials shall be registered under the Law on Entrepreneurship and Enterprises.

If established as cooperative, media outlets or press agencies shall be registered with the Ministry of Justice in the Single National Registry of periodicals and press agencies. Under the draft, founder of the media outlet would not be allowed to interfere in the editorial policy of the periodical or press agency he/she established.

Also the draft provides that within 3 months, periodicals and press agencies registered under the Law on Entrepreneurship and Enterprises shall re-register with the Ministry of Justice and be included in the Single National Registry. Re-registration shall be for free.

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