Activity of the President on February 17 – March 4, 2007

Decrees

Moldovan president has awarded the Labour Glory order to:

Victor Kostetki, rector of the Slavonic University;
Gheorghe Duca, chairman of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences.
Tudor Besleaga, chairman of the SA “Orhei-Vit” Administration Board;
Alina Ianucenco, judge of the Constitutional Court.

Sittings. Decisions. Statements

Opening of the first European Information Centre

President Vladimir Voronin has reiterated, at a regional conference occasioned by opening of the European Information Centre in Cahul, the firm and irreversible commitment of Moldovan authorities to take all actions needed to fulfil the European integration goal. He noted in this respect the cooperation between public administration and civil society, stressing that the common goal may be reached with joint efforts of all segments of society. The president noted that authorities must pay more attention in 2007 to a better implementation of reforms and laws adopted at central and local levels, in line with European norms.

Meeting with ombudsmen

The chief of state has visited the Moldovan Centre for Human Rights, being informed about most frequent and gravest breaches of human rights discovered by ombudsmen and personnel of this institution:

Frequent ignorance of legislation on petitioning;
Problems in justice making process and execution of judgments;
Alarming situation regarding use of torture and inhuman treatment in activity of the Interior Ministry and other law bodies;
Problems in penitentiary system;
Difficulties in cooperation between the Centre for Human Rights and certain institutions (Interior Ministry, Ministry of Education and Youth, Ministry of Justice, Prosecutor-General’s Office, Superior Council of Magistracy), etc.

Delaying the examination of penal cases or inadequately sanctioning persons involved in concrete violations of constitutional rights of citizens are usually conditioned by subjective factors: bureaucracy, legal nihilism, and low execution discipline. Ombudsmen sought the support of the chief of state for improving the legislation in the field, creating modern conditions for a normal activity of district branches of the centre, creating offices of the centre in localities near the Transnistrian region, noting that the respect for human rights in eastern districts of Moldova would be monitored this way. Voronin invited ombudsmen to widely mediate cases of formal approach of the centre’s recommendations regarding examination of petitions on violation of human rights by ministries, public institutions. In this context, it was announced that a special sitting on respect for human rights will be convoked.

Admission in educational institutions

A sitting on results of admission in educational institutions in 2006 and admission plan for the academic year 2007–08 was held. According to competent authorities, the implementation of new admission requirements confirms some positive trends: rise of the number of students at pedagogical and technical faculties, specialties needed by national economy; reduction of discrepancy between real offers and demands on labour market. It was noted the need of reducing in continuation in 2007 the admission at specialties for which an essential surplus of specialists is observed on labour market (particularly by reducing the admission for educational tuitions). The president highlighted the importance of ensuring an enrolment in strict compliance with admission plan and quotas, working out an admission plan for 2008, forecast of admission in educational institutions for 2009–2010. The chief of state also underlined the need of intensifying the process of specialisation of educational institutions and post-accrediting assessment, monitoring of strict respect for requirements on licensing of activity in this area. He also recommended the establishing of a minimum competition mark for admission at universities and called for reduction of the number of students who attend fewer courses, given the unsatisfactory quality of education.

Difficulties and priorities of agriculture

The chief of state has attended a sitting of the College of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and described the work of the ministry and subordinated institutions in 2006 as generally satisfactory. Also, he signalled some problems:

The farm land consolidation process develops slowly, including because decision makers did not fully realise the importance of land consolidation;
Creation of agricultural cooperatives;
Acceleration of the process of creating technological machine stations;
Inefficient use of fields with low productivity and eroded land, which count for about 18 percent of all farm land;
Elaboration of development concepts for agriculture, given the division of agricultural fields into three climatic zones — north, centre and south;
Difficulties of creating small enterprises to process agricultural production in rural areas, etc.

Also, the chief of state indicated the opportunity of conducting a study on perspective of development of Moldovan agriculture in the context of European integration process of the country, as well as of taking over the experience in this respect from new E.U. member states, especially the Baltic countries.

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