Activity of the Parliament on March 15–28, 2006

Reshuffles

The Parliament has declared two vacant mandates of lawmaker, one of the faction representing the Communist Party of Moldova (PCRM) faction, while the second of the electoral bloc Democratic Moldova (BMD). Accordingly to the order, Efim Agachi, representative of the Democratic Party of Moldova, will be validated from the list of BMD for the vacancy.

Legislative acts

Law for the modification and completion of the Law # 1569-XV from December 20, 2002 concerning the introduction and withdrawal of goods from the Republic of Moldova by individuals. The adopted law introduces a series of amendments aimed to liberalise the border crossing regime for individuals and goods that they introduce or withdraw from the country. In particular, it allows individuals to introduce unlimited currency and to withdraw up to 10,000 euros from Moldova without showing bank certifications.

Draft law for the modification of Article 5 of the Law # 633-XV from November 15, 2001 regarding the prevention and combat of money laundering and financing of terrorism. The document adopted in the first reading stipulates that data on any limited or suspect financial deals are delivered to the Centre for the Struggle Against Economic Crimes and Corruption^[1]. Also, the minimal limit of these operations carried out by individuals was reduced down to 200,000 lei (15,000 dollars).

Draft law for the completion of some legislative acts concerning the customs activity. The draft adopted in the first reading stipulates the transfer of origin certification competences from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to the Customs Service. It empowers customs bodies to demand any necessary documents from economic agent for certification of exports, which would justify and demonstrate the origin of goods and would make an expertise of origin of commodities if needed be.

Parliamentary control. Declarations

Hearings

The special commission for monitoring of the process of restitution of deposits to depositors of the Guineia bank and Intercapital concern has held a sitting and heard reports and information of the Justice Ministry, Prosecutor-General’s Office and ex-officio administrators. According to unveiled information, prosecutors have examined pretensions of former depositors of the Guinea Bank, while execution bodies organised auctions to sale of a real estate that belonged to Intercapital and taken over by state. Under the Law# 197 from July 28, 2005, the Execution Department of the Justice Ministry will emergently sell the building from the town of Vatra of the Chisinau municipality and will ensure the enforcement of execution documents of Intercapital depositors, while the Government will have to take measures needed for its implementation within two months after enforcement of this law (by October 12, 2005) should take the necessary measures needed for its implementation. According to information tabled at the sitting of the special commission, the auctions for sale of real estate have failed and, therefore, the restitution of deposits is impossible.

Questions and interpellations

The Justice Ministry has replied to an interpellation regarding the activity of pioneer organisations, mentioning the principles that served as basis for creation and activity of these public youth organisations in Moldova. At the same time, a representative of the ministry affirmed that the number of these organisations and number of their members are unknown because the legislation does not stipulate the mandatory information over such an obligation.

PPCD parliamentarian Gheorghe Susarenco has asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office to study the possibility to file penal cases against heads of the Centru and Buiucani district courts of the Chisinau municipality. The Superior Council of Magistracy said that these courts violate the principle of aleatory distribution (under Art. 344 of the Code of Penal Procedure: in the mode established at the beginning of the year, in alphabetic order) of penal cases, with chairmen of courts making decisions either on basis “of complexity or resonance of the case,” or “of the task of judges.” Deputy Susarenco considers that these actions are elements of the offence “Excess of authority or exceeded service competences.” It should be noted in this context that the chairman of the Centru district court has examined the case of former defence minister Valeriu Pasat, whom he sentenced for an offence stipulated by Art. 185 of the 1961 Penal Code — “Excess of authority or exceeded service competences.” The examination of cases by the Buiucani court district often captures the attention of public opinion because central institutions of the state administration (Parliament, Presidency, Government) are based in its area, as well as headquarters of CCCEC, SIS, and cases filed against these institutions have a special resonance.

Susarenco also reiterated his previous interpellation in which he demanded the Municipal Council to sack the deputy mayors of Chisinau because they illegally run these posts. Lawmaker Dumitru Braghis has asked the Government to report on indexation of social insurance pensions, which will be indexed starting April 1, 2006. According to the lawmaker, the uniform indexation of pensions is unfair because persons who earn small pensions will receive a minor indexation, while those who earn high pensions will receive high rises comparable to the size of social pensions of first level^[2]. The need to reform the pension system is being discussed for quite a long time and the Government has earlier planned to take some measures for differentiated rises and indexation, but no final result was obtained so far.

Declarations

The AMN faction launched a declaration on March 23 regarding the failure to respect the commitments towards the Council of Europe, saying that the Republic of Moldova “does not comply with commitments assumed while joining the Council of Europe” and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) monitors the functioning of democratic institutions in Moldova for such a long time from this reason. AMN accused the ruling party of “not fulfilling its commitments on reformation of political system, public sector, local administration and autonomy, audiovisual, justice and prosecutor’s office.” It accused the parliamentary majority of delaying the implementation of the schedule for adjustment of legislation to the Resolutions and Recommendations of PACE, violation of the moratorium recommended by PACE on sensitive problems such as history and language, “mimicking the implementation of democratic reforms.” The declaration calls for organisation of a special sitting of the Parliament to discuss the progress of reforms and respect for commitments toward CoE.

In parallel with the AMN declaration, a statement of the Communist Party faction was read, and it envisaged the cited statements and replied to accusations taken by AMN in a previous declaration regarding the situation of agriculture. It said that PCRM “aims first of all to ensure the welfare of population” and to promote the legislative reforms aimed to remedy the situation in agriculture. PCRM mentioned the annual rise of state subsidies for agriculture, creation of a network of technological machine stations, agricultural land consolidation, etc.

↑ Art.5 (3) of the Law # 633 from November 15, 2001 concerning prevention and combat of money laundering and financing of terrorism stipulates that CCCEC is not unconditionally told the operations undertaken by non-residents in financial institutions from the Republic of Moldova or in branches and offices of foreign banks authorised in the Republic of Moldova.
↑ As for example, the law on state social insurance pensions, the pension of lawmakers and Government members must be calculated in the amount of 75 percent of the sum of all monthly payments established in the new law on salary system for budgetary sector and it would exceed 5,000 lei. The indexation of 15.7 percent of this amount will exceed 750 lei, while the average pensions for retirement does not exceed 500 lei (the minimal indexed pension for retirement will be only 336 lei starting April 1, 2006).

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