Activity of the Parliament on October 1–31, 2008

Appointments. Dismissals

The Parliament has appointed 4 ombudsmen:

Anatolie MUNTEANU, who will also run the Centre for Human Rights;
Aurelia GRIGORIU;
Oleg EFRIM;
Tamara PLAMADEALA.

Ion Prodan was relieved from the post of Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), as his mandate is over. Under the same parliamentary decision, Mrs. Emma Tabirta was assigned NBM Deputy Governor, member of the Board of Directors for a 7-year term.

Legislative acts

Contraventional Code. The document voted in the final reading completes the list of complex legislative acts planned by the concept on judicial reform and rule of law in the Republic of Moldova. The new document was adjusted to European standards and it stipulates new practices and procedures, stricter sanctions for certain contraventions (in the area of motor traffic, protection of environment, financial market, etc.).

Law on modification and completion of the law concerning the normative price and sale-purchase of the land. In order to provide economic agents with state sustenance, the draft law modifies the coefficients to calculate sale prices of adjacent plots. At the same time, given the increasing price of fields on land market, it raises the coefficients to calculate the sale price of adjacent plots (compared with 2006, prices will grow 3.3-fold in the Chisinau municipality, 6.7-fold in the Balti municipality, 4-fold in district centres; 2–2.5-fold in other towns and villages.

Law on modification of Annex to the law concerning the management and privatisation of public property. At the initiative of several PCRM legislators, the parliamentary majority has decided to put on sale the Air Moldova Company, the hotel complex Codru and the state-owned enterprise Cafeneaua Parlamentului.

Note by ADEPT: Opposition parliamentarians have bitterly criticised these legislative modifications, accusing the ruling majority of imperfect management of public patrimony and private interests relating to these facilities and real estates.

Laws on ratification or accession to international acts:

The acceptance of the Amendment to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal;
The acceptance of the Amendment to the Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;
The modification of the law on partial ratification of the revised European Social Charter;
The acceptance of the Amendment to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Decision concerning the attribution of a special numbering plate to the vehicle of the SCM Chairperson. Under this decision, the vehicle serving the Chairperson of the Superior Council of Magistracy will be allotted a special numbering plate from the “RM-P” series followed by three digits.

Note by ADEPT: The legislation and traffic rules do not stipulate any priorities for vehicles equipped with special numbers, but the cases when policemen do not stop such automobiles even when they violate the motor traffic regulation have become a tradition. For these reasons inclusively, automobiles of dignitaries have been involved or were to blame for many traffic accidents.

The draft law on modification of some legislative acts regulating the remuneration of the state representative in economic structures. In particular, it eliminates legal regulations on remuneration of public servants which are members of state enterprises and state-owned joint stock societies. It aims to ensure a fair treatment to functionaries and exempt economic agents from certain expenses.

Note by ADEPT: Opposition lawmakers have warned that annulling any payments would reduce the already low efficiency of state representatives, as certain remuneration for this activity is necessary from sources of economic agents or state budget.

The draft law on completion of some legislative acts concerning the status of judge and Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM). It recommends the detachment of the judge selected as inspector of the Judicial Inspection advising the SCM throughout the mandate term (4 years), but before the 65-year-old age limit.

The draft law on completion of the Execution Code. It recommends a new article — 177/1, which regulates the civil control on detention institutions with the view to protect human rights. The monitoring will rest with special commissions formed according to the law concerning the civil control on respect for human rights in detention institutions.

Law on modification of the Execution Code. Execution offices lack funds to execute civil judicial decisions and, therefore, the execution of about 60 percent of executory documents is delayed and about 45 percent of such documents are not executed. The amendments propose the debtor to cover the expenses needed for the execution acts, while the creditor will have to “advance” the necessary spending for the execution, and it will have the right to further claim the reimbursement by debtor. Expenses for execution acts include the carriage, storage and sale of goods of the debtor, enforced opening and closing of rooms, displacement or removal of enclosures, remuneration of specialists, experts, assistant witnesses and other participants in the execution process in accordance with legislation; the move of judicial executor to the execution area; the search of debtor and its goods; the transfer (shipment) of collected amounts via post; the enforced presentation of the debtor; the organisation and conduct of an auction. Spending for the issuance of execution acts, spending by creditors for the legal assistance in the execution process, as well as household spending of the execution office are not taken into account.

The draft law on completion of the Penal Code. It introduces a new article — 239/1, which incriminates the use of budgetary funds contrary to their destination. Sanctions will be between 300 conventional units (6,000 lei) and jail terms from 2 to 5 years, with the deprivation of the right to run certain offices or exercise a certain activity for 2–5 years. The completion is argued with the insufficient sanctioning to prevent actions and activities which violate the law and interests of the state budget.

Note by ADEPT: Opposition parties and independent experts feared that these norms could be used abusively and preferentially by authorities, which could particularly apply them against local authorities led by representatives of the opposition.

Several very important framework laws have been passed in the first reading:

Concerning the state secret;
Concerning the transparency of the decision-making process;
Concerning the prevention and struggle against offences committed via information systems.

Parliamentary control. Statements

Hearings. Motions

The Ministry of Finance has reported expenses from the Government Reserve Fund to the Parliament. According to the report, the Reserve Fund was initially planned for the amount of 46 million lei and it was further raised to 60.8 million lei. As much as 24.6 million lei was spent to remedy consequences of natural disasters; more than 10 million lei was spent for visits by dignitaries to other countries and visas for foreign delegates to Moldova; 9.2 million lei was allocated to state organisations; 4.1 million lei went to construction works at budgetary institutions, etc.

The Ministry of Local Public Administration has reported the implementation of the law on regional development. According to MLPA, candidates for regional development councils North, Centre and South have been selected. MLPA has assisted a project funded by the British Government (DFID) and the Swedish Agency (SIDA). The draft state budget law for 2009 foresees 156 million lei for regional development projects.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has informed legislators about:

Preparations of budgetary institutions for the heating season and connecting localities to natural gas pipes. The most complicated situation is related to high debts of heating producers and providers to SA Moldova-Gaz (debts of CETs amount to about 1.8 billion lei). About 900 localities (60 percent of all) were connected to natural gas pipes in late October. Finishing the construction of the Balti-Ungheni gas pipe will connect another more than 200 localities.
Distribution of funds to remedy consequences of natural disasters. According to available information, about 40.5 million lei has been collected to banking accounts to remedy consequences of the summer 2008 floods, as of October 21, 2008, of which 40,438,000 lei was distributed under governmental decisions.

A representative of the Agro-Industrial Agency Moldova-Vin has reported the situation in viticulture sector and actions taken to redress it. According to the report:

The vine-growing patrimony of Moldova on January 1, 2008 was estimated at 158,000 hectares of vineyards;
Only 30 percent of all vineyards are in a satisfactory or good condition, 48 percent are in an acceptable condition and 22,000 hectares are in a bad condition and shall be stubbed out.
The medium crop per hectare is between 2.2 and 5.5 tons, which is critical while analysing the productivity of vines;
About 1,700 hectares of table vines were planted in 2007;
Acquisition prices are between 1.8 and 2.8 lei per kilogram of white grapes and between 2.4 and 3.5 lei per kilogram of red grapes.

The Ministry of Local Public Administration told the Parliament that the decision by the Chisinau Municipal Council to compensate heating to certain categories of citizens is illegal, since it was not signed and surveyed.

The parliamentary majority has turned down a motion by 15 opposition legislators regarding the crisis situation on foreign exchange market and inefficient economic policy of the Government.

Questions. Interpellations

The Interior Ministry has answered the question regarding the legality of police actions during the October 5 manifestations and the police assault on employees of the PRO TV Chisinau channel:

According to information released by the Interior Ministry, 1,557 meetings at different level were organised after the enforcement of the law on meetings (on February 22, 2008), with the participation of between 10 and thousands of people. At those meetings, the police were not accused of halting or obstructing them and the Interior Ministry does not accept the charges that special actions have been taken to ban or obstruct the meetings held by the Liberal Party on October 5, 2008.;
As regards the irregular conduct of the deputy chief of Orhei police district against the PRO TV team, an administrative case is underway. The Interior Ministry said concerning the case of PRO TV cameraman Mihai Sambra that the latter was involved in a conflict with his hostel neighbours and he clashed, but the police did not hold him. The municipal Prosecutor’s Office has further instructed competent authorities not to open criminal charges against Interior Ministry officers;
The reason of incidents in the Balti municipality and the non-involvement of the police was that organisers on behalf of the Liberal Party said that the presence of the police at the manifestation was unwelcome and unnecessary. Further, the police have held 5 participants in clashes and issued reports on hooliganism charges. The Balti Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the case.

Note by ADEPT: The Liberal Party has released a communication regarding this information, accusing the Interior Ministry of misinforming the Parliament and demanding the dismissal of certain ministerial officials.

Veaceslav Untila, legislator representing the Our Moldova Alliance (AMN), has demanded the information of the Parliament concerning actions to sanction persons who have embezzled large funds while reconstructing the Eternitate memorial and Pan Halippa street in Chisinau.

The parliamentary faction representing the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) has demanded information from Prosecutor-General and the sanctioning of persons who are to blame for the sentencing of Moldova by the ECHR in the case “Oferta Plus vs. Moldova” in which the Strasbourg-based Court told Moldova to pay 2.5 million euros from the state budget.

Deputy Anatol Taranu has asked the Interior Ministry, Prosecutor-General’s Office and Information and Security Service to investigate cases recorded in Balti and Chisinau, when Russian-speaking youths have manifested violently against a peaceful action aimed to raise the awareness of people over the need to pull out the Russian troops from Moldova.

Deputy Ion Neagu has asked the Ministry of Justice to elucidate aspects related to the enforcement of the new law on political parties: in particular, the new law contains ambiguous and unclear regulations; majority of opposition political parties which tried to adjust their constitution documents to the new law have faced obstacles to register changes; ISS officers employed with the Ministry of Justice (division for political parties and nongovernmental organisations) have an unclear role; judicial consequences for political parties and social-political organisations which did not meet Article 34 (2) of the law are unclear and it is unknown whether these parties will be able to participate in the 2009 parliamentary elections or not.

Christian Democratic Deputy Stefan Secareanu has asked the electronic media watchdog CCA, the Prosecutor-General’s Office, the Centre for Combating Economic Crime and Corruption, the Information and Security Service and the Ministry of Finance to provide information about owners of the PRO TV Chisinau channel and correctness of paying taxes.

Gheorghe Susarenco, lawmaker representing the Our Moldova Alliance, has asked the Prosecutor-General and the Information and Security Service to provide information about owners f the TV channels EURO TV and Antena C and taxes they pay.

Statements

The parliamentary faction representing the Our Moldova Alliance has released statements concerning:

Problems of farmers and agriculture;
The identification of the TeleRadio-Moldova Company with the communist governance;
Illegal actions by the acting governance and social-political crisis in the country.

Deputy Dumitru Braghis has presented a statement regarding the accelerated privatisation process, asking the postponement of this process and the elaboration of a new economic development vision.

The DPM faction seeks again the modification of Moldova’s Constitution in order to ban the chief of state to be member of a political party.

Deputy Ion Neagu has read a statement raising concern with deteriorating social-political situation and police abuses, jeopardising of social environment during the 2009 electoral campaign.

Deputy Zoia Jalba has raised concern with abuses by law enforcement bodies and assaults on independent media.

e-democracy.md