Activity of the President on June 1–15, 2008

Decrees

Under a presidential decree, Ilie Telescu was nominated presidential advisor for humanitarian programmes. Telescu ran the TeleRadio-Moldova Company until 2007.

The Honour Order was awarded to:

Iuri Tiscenco, editor-in-chief of “Nezavisimaya Moldova” newspaper;
Outgoing U.S Ambassador to Moldova Michael D. Kirby.

Mihail Rusu, chairman of the Floresti district, was awarded the Order of the Republic.

Sittings. Decisions. Statements

Reorganisation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry

The Moldovan president has chaired a sitting on reorganisation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) and subordinated institutions. The chief of state considers that the necessity of reorganising the ministry is part of efforts to meet EU standards and this will entrust the MAFI to draft policies and normative-legislative framework on agro-industrial complex, to negotiate, coordinate, supervise and administrate adjacent sectors by following the example of similar EU ministries. According to initiatives raised at the sitting, the following institutions shall be established: the General Agricultural Inspectorate with 140 employees; the Phytosanitary Agency with 300 employees; the Sanitary-Veterinary Agency for Safe Animal Products with 2,263 employees. Following the reorganisation of agricultural institutions, their number of employees will be reduced by 588 persons. The sitting studied the problem of holding tenders to purchase goods for agriculture, stressing the necessity of optimising the organisation of acquisitions with the view to boost their transparency and efficiency, ensuring an equal access and conditions to all participants in tenders.

Note by ADEPT: The sitting did not mention why the reorganisation did not begin when the new cabinet of ministers was formed and why it was launched ad-hoc without being stipulated express by plans on implementation of the central public administration reform strategy.

Problems of journalists

Vladimir Voronin has met leaders of media outlets and discussed problems faced by newsmen in Moldova. The president promised to remove financial sanctions applied on journalists for non-pecuniary damage produced through libel and noted that any reciprocal criticism against governance and opposition is an element of democratic rules of the game, but the opposition media shall not press journalists who sincerely choose the governance. Journalists approached many issues, including journalistic deontology; access to information about state institutions, including promptness of released data and functionality of their media services, economic problems faced by printed media. They launched initiatives to establish a national professional organisation of journalists and introduce the Journalist’s Professional Day in Moldova.

The Moldovan president launched a legislative initiative after meeting journalists, proposing to limit the responsibility of media outlets in the event that final judicial decisions indicate libel, violated dignity or professional reputation. Media outlets shall dismiss the information in order to compensate the non-pecuniary damage suffered by plaintiff.

Informal CIS Summit

The agenda of the summit of CIS heads of state has included issues of common interest, of which the elaboration of the draft Economic Development Strategy of CIS till 2020; perspectives of cooperation in the area of energy, transportation and communications; social and humanitarian problem; key development directions of the Commonwealth including better CIS activity and functioning of its structures.

During the informal CIS Summit the president of Moldova has met his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev in Sankt Petersburg. They shared opinions about current stage and development prospects of Moldovan-Russian cooperation in diverse areas. Mr. Voronin promised that Moldova will return soon to Russia two paintings stolen from the “Hermitage” Museum in Sankt Petersburg and discovered by Moldovan law enforcement bodies after operative actions. Representatives of “Hermitage” and other Russian museums have stated later that no paintings had been stolen from these museums and assured that no masterpieces by Russians are preserved at “Hermitage”.

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