Activity of the Parliament on February 1–14, 2006

Appointments. Reshuffles

The parliamentary commission for foreign policy and European integration has considered a proposal of the Foreign Ministry to appoint Lidia Gutu as Moldovan ambassador to Romania. The parliamentarian and chairman of the Social Liberal Party, Oleg Serebrian, member of the parliamentary commission for foreign policy, has informed the public opinion about examination of this issue. If the executive proposes candidate Lidia Gutu to the president and the chief of state appoints her to this post, her mandate of lawmaker will become vacant, while the next candidate in the list of the electoral bloc Democratic Moldova is a representative of the Moldovan Democratic Party and he will probably join this faction in the Parliament. It should be mentioned in the context that the Moldovan ambassador to Romania was recalled in December 2005 and there were many cases within bilateral relations when the post of Moldovan ambassador was vacant for a long time, in spite of mentioning the “priority and special nature” of relations between the two countries.

Alexandr Barbov, a journalist specialised in economics and politics who has earlier cooperated with the TV channel “Pervy Kanal v Moldove”, the newspaper “Moldavsckye Vedomosti” and other online publications, was appointed as spokesman for the Parliament. The dismissal of his predecessor Alexandru Gisca was not motivated.

Legislative documents

Law on insurance of equal chances to women and men. The document introduces a series of normative provisions, administrative and organisational measures for promotion of women and men under equal conditions, exclusion of discrimination on gender-related causes.

Law on salary system in banking sector. The law was adopted in late 2005, but the president did not promulgate it and raised a series of objections and proposals that lawmakers have examined and took into consideration a part or all of them during the final examination of the document.

Law on modification and completion of the law on leasing in agriculture. The law modified the provisions on administration of agricultural fields, establishes new conditions on mode of leasing of common fields.

Law on modification of some legislative documents on state orders. By turning down a proposal of the president to extend the allocations for holders of the Stefan cel Mare orders, the Parliament has maintained its previous vote for this law through which it established monthly allocations of 500 lei for retired holders of the Soviet orders Hero of Socialist Labour, Labour Glory and the Order of the Republic.

Decision on appointment of members of the interparliamentary commission of cooperation between the Moldovan Parliament and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The commission includes lawmakers from all parliamentary factions and independent parliamentarians.

Decision on creation of the special commission to monitor the process of repayment of deposits of depositors of the Guinea Bank and Intercapital Concern. The commission will take over the functions of a similar commission created by the 15th legislature, which has contributed to the partial fulfilment of claims of depositors of these financial institutions.

Law on ratification of some international documents. The Parliament has ratified the convention on safeguard of immaterial cultural patrimony, convention on creation of the European and Mediterranean organisation for protection of plants, protocol on stop of multilateral agreements signed with CIS, etc.

Parliamentary control

Hearings

Minister of Industry and Infrastructure has reported on situation in energy sector to lawmakers. Vladimir Antosii said that the economic indicators of energy enterprises are on the rise compared with 2004. In 2005, 143 localities were connected to the gas pipes, while the overall number in the republic is 614 establishments. As much as 250 million lei was allocated for construction of gas pipes from the state budget for 20005. The building of the thoroughfare pipe Tocuz-Cainari-Mereni, which will cover all the additional gas needs of the Chisinau municipality, districts of Ialoveni and Causeni, is a priority of gasification. Projects on insurance of energy from regenerating resources (solar energy, biomass energy, wind energy) were studied as alternative energy sources, but they would cover maximum 6 percent of needs.

The price that Moldova will pay to the Russian Federation after April 1, 2006, was not established yet, but the Government is trying to sign contracts on supply of gas from alternative sources from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Representatives of the parliamentary opposition have demanded information about the imminent rise of natural gas price after April 1, 2006, but it was not confirmed or declined. Also, the need of a fair solution to the problem of ownership of the Moldova-Gaz enterprise on gas pipes, which are built with the financial support of population but are transferred under the balance of this business, was indicated. Representatives of the parliamentary majority have highlighted the need to speed up the construction of power plants, as well as of systems of interconnection with Ukraine and Romania. Also, the need to resume the electricity supplies from the Cuciurgan power station was outlined. It should be noted in the context that the parliamentary faction of PPCD has described the Government’s agreement on transit of electricity produced by the Cuciurgan plant as an “economic complicity with the Tiraspol regime” and “violation of provisions of legislation that describe the privatisation of the state patrimony as illegal.” In reply, a representative of the executive said that the Republic of Moldova could raise 6–7 million dollars from transportation of electricity produced by the Cuciurgan plant.

Questions and interpellations

The speaker submitted an interpellation to the defence minister, saying that different companies have complained to the Parliament that they have not been admitted at a contest for auctioning of some fields of the Defence Ministry from artificial reasons. The defence minister was told to report on this issue at a plenary sitting of the Parliament.
PPCD Deputy Gheorghe Susarenco has demanded information about individuals who own shares in the capital of the joint stock society Moldova-Gaz. The quota of these shares is about 1 percent of the overall number, but their financial value is very high.
PDM Deputy Dumitru Ivanov has sought the intervention of competent authorities in order to help the residents of villages at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border in the Stefan-Voda district to be able to watch and listen to programmes of the national television and radio. Also, he sought information about interdictions of the Ukrainian authorities against duty-free transportation of small quantities of agricultural production by residents of villages from the border area.
Deputy Iurie Bolboceanu has asked the Supreme Court of Justice and Prosecutor-General’s Office to provide information on situation in the trade centre Gemenii, fraudulent involvement of high-ranking functionaries of Moldova and Ukraine in activity and litigations of these society, as well as about measures of authorities to stop these illegalities.
AMN Deputy Veaceslav Untila has asked the Ministry of Culture and Prosecutor-General’s Office to provide information about legality of demolition of the Conacul Urban Theodosiu building in the 160 Stefan cel Mare avenue in the Chisinau municipality near the Moldovan presidency headquarters in August 2005. This monument of architecture was destroyed without fulfilling all conditions stipulated by legislation in this regard, without being excluded from the register of monuments protected by state through a special decision of the Parliament. It should be noted that this problem was tackled four months ago at the first sittings of the Parliament in October 2005, proposing the creation of a parliamentary investigative commission, but the parliamentary majority turned down this initiative, saying that an appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office on this case is enough for an initial elucidation of situation. The information of prosecutor’s office on this case was not released until now.
PCRM Deputy Valeri Garev has asked the executive to get involved and examine violations of the customs legislation by a number of businesses, signalled by a former officer of the Customs Service, whom the customs administration has pressured to tender resignation.

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