Activity of the Parliament on February 1–15, 2008

Dismissals

The mandate of deputy of Victor Stepaniuc, who was recently appointed deputy prime minister, was declared vacant.

Alexandru Lipcan, lawmaker on behalf of the Our Moldova Alliance, has tendered resignation from the subcommittee in charge with parliamentary control on the Information and Security Service (ISS). Lipcan said that the work of the subcommittee is a screen which mimics the democratisation in the area, and the subcommittee was created to mislead European structures that demand the reformation of the security sector. In reality, ISS is influenced by Moldova’s president and the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, with the activity of this structure being politicised, especially in the recent period.

The Parliament has taken note of the resignation of Constantin Rotaru as member of the electronic media watchdog CCA. According to a parliamentary decision, Rotaru was relieved from this office on basis of “his demand”, while he has earlier said that the “CCA is politicised” and this is the reason of his resignation. A contest was opened for this vacancy.

Legal acts

Law on conflict of interests. The document was updated but the implementation and transparency mechanism in this area are regulated superficially and inadequately so far, with the parliamentary majority avoiding the participation of the public and mass media, though these subjects are capable to produce serious effects in preventing and combating the conflicts of interests.

Law on probation. The document aims to build a legal basis for functioning of the probation service, facilitate the reintegration of former detainees into society.

Law on modification and completion of the law on notary office. It extends the possibilities of the Ministry of Justice to intervene and suspend the activity of notaries who obstruct legal controls.

Law on modification of the law on the bar. Under new regulations, attorneys may provide legal assistance only on basis of a contract registered with he Bar, except for the representation of interests of relatives.

Draft Conduct (Ethic) Code of public functionary. The elaboration of this document was stipulated by the central public administration reformation strategy, and this act was delivered to the Parliament in 2006. Although it is being studied with a two-year delay, the document is imperfect and parliamentary debates on this act fuelled controversies and objections regarding some regulations capable to limit the transparency of authorities, independence of functionaries. On the other hand, aspects related to depoliticising of the public service are not tackled sufficiently and clearly.

Draft law on meetings. The document approved in the first reading was stipulated by the 2005–09 legislative programme and priority action plan on implementation of the European Union — Moldova Action Plan in 2007. The main news includes the introduction of some principles such as proportionality, non-discrimination, legality and presumption in favour of meetings. These principles shall prevent abuses by authorities in relations with persons willing to peacefully manifest their ideas and attitudes at meetings in public places. Authorities hope that this law will help Moldova get rid of the Council of Europe’s monitoring, contributing to the European integration of the country this way.

Draft law on protection of investments. The document proposes rights and obligations for the creation, legal protection and exploitation of investments. According to developers, the law will build the framework needed to implement international regulations, with the norms meeting the acquis communautaire.

Draft law on protection of brands. This document was also drafted accordingly to international and community laws in the area, aiming to update the existing legal framework.

Draft laws on international trade arbitrage and internal arbitrage. The new regulations aim to update the legal framework on extra-judicial alternatives of settlement of economic litigations on an amicable way by appealing to national or international arbiters. The drafts adopted in the first reading are part of a package of laws stipulated by the E.U.-Moldova Action Plan.

Draft law on modification and completion of the law on legal acts. According to the legislative initiative voted in the first reading, the Parliament alone will be authorised to approve policy documents such as “state strategies and concepts” (the Government will be authorised to approve state plans and programmes). Legislators failed to establish the category of the legal act under which the documents concerned will be approved: decision, ordinary law or organic law.

Note: According to preliminary estimates by ADEPT experts, the Government, Parliament and President of Moldova have approved more than 280 policy documents in 2001–07, which is nearly 7-fold more than in 1995–2000. The high number of such documents, lack of complex monitoring mechanisms encourage situations when provisions from precedent documents still are effective, though new acts are adopted and they substitute or modify the essence; some regulations contradict other similar acts; the texts are often very vague, and thus the names of documents and actions and even their essence are modified ad-hoc.

Draft law on modification and completion of the Execution Code. Under amendments, legal executors could be authorised to demand law courts to restrict persons with patrimonial debts to leave the country, if their departure obstructs the execution of judgments.

Parliamentary control. Statements

Hearings

The chairman of the Parliament told the annual conference of judges on February 8 that the first parliamentary hearings scheduled for March will focus on justice and Moldova’s cases at the ECHR.

The parliamentary majority has refused to hear the prosecutor-general in the parliament regarding the criminal case filed against journalist Constantin Tanase, who is accused by Prosecutor’s Office of stirring up the enmity or national splitting. The parliamentary opposition describes actions by the Prosecutor’s Office as selective, biased and capable to encroach on freedom of expression.

Also, the parliamentary majority and speaker of the Parliament refused to discuss the problem of holders of entrepreneur’s patents, who were picketing the Parliament and demanded the abrogation or modification of the law which suppresses their activity.

Motions

Sixteen lawmakers representing opposition factions have submitted a simple motion to the Parliament, accusing the Government of irresponsible attitude towards state-protected monuments and seeking the dismissal of the minister of culture and tourism. They said that the minister did not stop the illegal demolition of a building included in the register of state-protected monuments. The parliamentarians demand the Prosecutor-General’s Office to investigate the illegal demolition and file a case against guilty functionaries. Also, the motion recommends the Government to report the condition of state-protected monuments and planned measures to protect them.

Questions. Interpellations

The chairwoman of the National Liberal Party, Vitalia Pavlicenco, has asked the Prosecutor-General to argue the accusation against director of the Timpul newspaper Constantin Tanase and consequences of his statement, which allegedly harmed the public interests. Also, she demanded explanations why the Prosecutor’s Office did not react to statements by Moldovan president, who said that he is not a “president for Romanians” and violated the right of citizens to an equal treatment in society.

In another interpellation, the NLP leader demanded the Prosecutor-General’s Office to explain if after the examination of the “Oferta Plus vs. Moldova” case, in which the ECHR has recently sentenced Moldova, was established that the international human rights tools were deliberately violated or for a grave guilt, and if elements of the offence were established.

Statements

Speaker Marian Lupu has told the annual conference of judges that the Parliament focuses to strengthen the judiciary and ensure the independence of the judiciary by modifying the legislation in effect. According to the speaker, the following would be key accomplishments in this area: the consolidation of SCM; the updating of the judge nomination procedure; the introduction of legal guarantees to improve the organisational, administrative and financial activity; the ensuring of impartiality, transparency, enhancing the responsibility of judges. The faults would include among others: the big number of cases lost at the ECHR; the imperfect management, the insufficient transparency and impartiality; the low quality of the justice; the corruption; the insufficient number of judges; the low capacities of the apparatus of courts, etc.

The Our Moldova Alliance has released a statement regarding “abuses committed by governance to maintain the political control at any costs.” The document accuses the central government of brutal and disdainful treatment of local authorities representing the opposition. It signals the persecution of disobedient local councillors, enhanced competences, number of territorial administrative control directorates of LPAM and number of their employees (GD #10 from 17.01.2008), these being one more argument for the accusations.

The National Liberal Party has released a declaration accusing the ruling party of persecuting journalists. In particular, it invokes the case of journalist Constantin Tanase, who is the subject of a criminal case filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.

The parliamentary faction representing the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) has released a statement condemning manifestations which it describes as xenophobia. The PCRM says that opposition lawmakers and party leaders tried to camouflage the statement by journalist Constantin Tanase “by citing European values”, while articles published by the newspaper and statements by director of this publication aim “to destabilise the situation in Moldova and sabotage the Transnistrian settlement initiatives by Moldovan president.”

The faction representing the Democratic Party of Moldova (DPM) has released a statement regarding the situation of the electronic media watchdog CCA and Board of Observers (BO) of the broadcasting company “TeleRadio-Moldova”, raising concern with the politicising of the CCA and legal persecution of some (BO) members.

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