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Activity of the Parliament on December 1–31, 2008

At the end of the session, the Parliament has proceeded to the emergent examination and adoption of some key legislative acts and drafts regarded as controversial and imperfect. The process was not transparent enough and in spite of abusive practices signalled by the opposition and civil society organizations, the law on legislative acts, Parliament’s Regulation and the concept on cooperation between Parliament and civil society were breached obviously or even deliberately when some documents were examined. This hasty legislative activity both reduced the confidence and infirm cooperation between the Parliament and NGOs, and will generate to other more serious problems in future, in particular, deficiencies in applying and interpreting the legislation, launching of unprepared reforms; lack of social and economic conditions to implement some regulations, etc. A distinct aspect is that the parliamentary majority has acted this way after the adoption of the law on transparency of the decision-making process, which did not enter into force so far, but should be taken into account anyway. And not the last, after two years of enforcing the concept on cooperation between Parliament and civil society, the formal condition to organize an annual conference aimed at assessing the cooperation and deciding new directions of cooperation between Parliament and civil society organizations was not respected. In these conditions, added to harmful developments linked to abuses by law enforcement bodies and some public institutions, the civil society was probably right to redirect its priorities for a while and turn from legislative cooperation towards more active monitoring on governance during the electoral campaign, protesting and signaling breaches and ignorance of democratic standards to local and international public opinion.

Legislative acts

Law concerning the Chamber of Auditors. Under new regulations, members to the Chamber of Auditors will not be elected any longer accordingly to principles set after the 2005 parliamentary political consensus, which awarded the majority to the opposition. They will be appointed at the initiative of chairperson of the Chamber of Auditors with a majority of votes by legislators.

Education Code. The document was initiated by the chief of state and regulates aspects relating to the educational doctrine; social principles, functions, objectives and general organisation of education; basic priorities and state guarantees in education sector etc. The education system will be structured on levels, rounds and degrees: early education and pre-school education; elementary education; gymnasium education; secondary education; vocational/technical education (professional school and college); higher education; bachelor’s degree; master’s, doctorate’s and post-graduate degrees. The education system will also include subsystems: extra-school education, recovery education, art and sport, professional institutions and continuous education.

Note by ADEPT: The Code was promoted in a hurry and even abusively, without necessary public discussions and debates, fuelling grounded criticism by parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties, experts, civil society organisations, representatives of education system etc. Objections include among others: the failure of the document to rally the education system to European standards; it introduces inconstancy and uncertainty in the education system; promotes restrained (departmental) interests of representatives of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova; stipulates a multitude de subordinated normative acts, which will require a long time in order to be drafted, adopted and enforced, so that it will be impossible to apply the Code and this will jeopardise the functioning of the education system.

Law concerning the legal status of adoption. The document regulates legal relations relating to the protection of rights of the child through adoption; establishes the legal status of adoption; cooperation between public administration authorities and nongovernmental organisations and international cooperation in the area of protection of the child through adoption. The necessity of drafting this law was established by the Supreme Security Council, which decided at a sitting in early 2005 that interventions in this field are required. The document introduces some child adoption interdictions: it bans the adoption between brothers; prohibits the adoption of a child by several persons, except for husband and wife simultaneously or successively; minimum and maximum age limits, etc.

Law concerning the prosecution. The new adopted document is promoted to execute recommendations by the Council of Europe and brings great innovations; in particular, it stipulates the formation of a Superior Council of Prosecutors (a self-administration body of prosecutors), disciplinary and qualification colleges’ introduces the patrimonial responsibility of prosecutors; social rights and guarantees, etc.

Note by ADEPT: Although it was introduced as a major progress aimed at meeting international standards, the draft was criticised by the parliamentary opposition and independent experts, with key objections envisaging the maintenance of possibilities to exert political influence; inadequate regulation of mechanisms designated to ensure the independence of prosecutors; setup of a parallel self-administration system when the Superior Council of Magistracy is operational, etc.

Law concerning the control on entities and candidates to public functions. It establishes principles, goals, procedure, forms and methods to verify information about Moldovan citizens who run or apply for public functions. The Information and Security Service will verify the information with the purpose to prevent, identify and combat some risk factors: activities contrary to public function, conflicts of interest; tolerating treason, espionage, terrorism, diversion, calling for overthrowing or violently changing the constitutional order or violent violation of territorial integrity, direct or indirect propaganda of war and other extremist actions; actions taken within the public function in the detriment of the Republic of Moldova, public authorities, society, human rights and fundamental freedoms; illegal disclosure of secret information protected by law. Entities and applicants to public dignity functions, public functions of high-ranking public functionaries and leading public functions, offices run by contracted military or other persons with a special status in public authorities which include military or special service, functions run by delegates to diplomatic or consular missions will be checked. Once receiving the SIS decision, the public authority will decide on compatibility/incompatibility of the entity (applicant) of the public function with interests of this office and will be able to decide on suspension or dismissal of the entity.

Note by ADEPT: According to independent experts, the promotion of this draft is not well-argued in compliance with the appropriate law, while the extended control and application of the law on public servants is unconstitutional and may illegally restrict the right to work and public function, which have been legally confirmed.

Law concerning the asylum in the Republic of Moldova. It establishes the legal status of foreigners seeking protection in the Republic of Moldova, the legal status of beneficiaries of protection, the procedure of awarding, ceasing and annulling a form of protection in the Republic of Moldova. The law covers aspects relating to the status of refugees in Moldova, abrogating the previous regulation in the area.

Law concerning the formation of the historic-cultural and natural-landscape reservation “Orheiul Vechi”. The draft law stipulates the building of the historic-cultural and natural-landscape reservation “Orheiul Vechi” in the gullet of the Raut River, the micro-zone of villages Trebujeni, Butuceni and Morovaia in the rayon of Orhei. It allocates about 500 hectares of land with a special status to the reservation. The activity of the reservation will be funded from the state budget, budgets of administrative-territorial units, landowners’ means, special funds, donations by individuals and legal entities.

Law on modification and completion of the law on citizenship. According to new regulations, only nationals residing abroad will be allowed to apply for the renunciation of Moldovan citizenship and they will have to apply to the diplomatic representation or consular institution of Moldova.

Note by ADEPT: The necessity of restrictions is linked to a recent important rise of the number of nationals who renounce the Moldovan citizenship, compared with the number of applicants. Authorities fear that this situation disadvantages Moldova, and they decided to restrict the renunciation of citizenship by forcing nationals to keep legal relations with the state, because they could not find other methods to make citizens stay home.

Law on ensuring the construction of the Clinical Hospital of Traumatology and Orthopedy. Through derogation from the law on management and privatisation of public property, the law exceptionally declares as private property the buildings and fields covering 2.0261 hectares on which the Clinical Hospital for Trauma and Orthopedics is located. The Ministry of Health will organise a public contest accordingly to the law on public procurement, in order to select investors for the “key” construction works, including the endowment with technological, medical equipment and furniture to meet necessities of the Clinical Hospital for Trauma and Orthopedics with a capacity of 210 beds, in exchange for getting the ownership on the buildings concerned. The investor will be able to get the right to ownership on the real estates concerned within 3 months after completing the construction and finally receiving the Clinical Hospital for Trauma and Orthopedics.

Law concerning the construction of a hostel for the State University of Physical Training and Sports. Through derogation from the law on education, it exceptionally authorises the construction of a 420-bed hostel by an investor, which will become owner of the building after completing the building works.

Note by ADEPT: The parliamentary opposition and independent experts have signalled normative shortcomings of this draft, fearing that it promotes some interests contrary to the public interest.

Law on ratification/accession to international acts:

Law for modification and completion of some legislative acts (on organisation and functioning of the judicial system). The law changes the modality of formation of the Superior Council of Magistracy (it will be made of 5 judges, 4 entitled professors and 3 ex-officio members: minister of justice, Prosecutor-General and head of the Supreme Court of Justice); the modality of repeated nomination by SCM of a candidacy turned down by political authorities (only with the votes of 2/3 of SCM members); principles of constitution of the qualification college and composition of the disciplinary college of judges (to include the majority of entitled law professors).

Note by ADEPT: The new law initiated and promoted emergently by Moldovan President annuls in fact the principles of the reform carried out on the basis of the parliamentary political consensus established after the 2005 elections and reintroduces possibilities to politically control the judicial power via the SCM and its bodies, in which the majority will be formed by persons supported and promoted executive and parliamentary power. The status of SCM as a judicial self-management body is also affected, since the management becomes “external” and the poor independence of judges may become a major problem.

Decision approving the strategy on development of civil society in 2008–2011. The document sets up principles and values of cooperation and relations between public administration and civil society and establishes the following priorities:

The Government jointly with non-governmental organisations will work out and approve within 4 months an action plan on implementation of the strategy, and will annually report the execution of its regulations to the Parliament.

Decision approving the strategy of the national referrence system for the protection and assistance of victims and potential victims of trafficking in human beings. A special system in the area is needed because the existing one is not part of the state social protection system and the state does not carry any responsibility. The strategy will be a basic instrument for the implementation of the law on preventing and combating the trafficking in human beings.

Decision on completing the State-Protected Monuments Register. The State-Protected Monuments Register was completed with objects built in the Soviet period (in the 1950–1980s) which evokes controversial historical events: the Monument of Grigore Cotovschi; the monument of Komsomol Heroes; the Monument of Fighters for the Soviet Authority; the Monument of Serghei Lazo; the Monument of Liberators from Fascist Occupation.

November 16–30, 2008 February 2–14, 2009