Moldovan-Gagauz parliamentary working group starts activity today

Chisinau, 4 February /MOLDPRES/- The working group made of Moldovan MPs and representatives of the Popular Assembly of the Gagauz autonomy has started its activity, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.

The working group held its first meeting today and focused on its basic activity principles based on responsibility, tolerance and trust, all of them needed to find efficient solutions. Attending the event were also Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, Moldovan MPs, representatives of the Gagauz Popular Assembly, representatives of Moldova’s development partners and diplomats.

Candu voiced his confidence that the newly-created platform would ensure a permanent and continuous dialogue between authorities, in order to harmonise the legislation for the benefit of Gagauz autonomy’s special status and development. Candu has also noted that the Moldovan parliament would fully back the activity of the working group. To this effect, MPs of all the parliamentary factions attended the group’s first meeting in sign of support.

“Such a communication platform will bring regional and central authorities together. I hope we will succeed to find solutions to long-standing and procrastinated problems. Actually, besides finding practical solutions, this platform is also meant to regain confidence in both sides. If the group proves to be successful, we will try to multiply the idea and implement it in the Transnistrian conflict’s settlement subsequently,” Candu said.

According to the Moldovan speaker, Chisinau and Comrat registered a string of good starts in their ties in 2015. Thus, they should be continued and developed in order to include the Gagauz autonomy in Moldova’s modernisation projects. Candu added that it was a premiere for Moldova’s government action programme to include provisions on the development of the Gagauz autonomy.

Candu thanked Moldova’s development partners, including Sweden, for financial support. He also voiced gratitude to the team of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) organisation and Council of Europe for backing the launch of the working group and their availability to offer it expertise, technical support and training.  

For his part, the head of the Gagauz Popular Assembly, Dmitrii Constantinov said the Gagauz autonomy had great expectations from this working group. “I am convinced that we will continue to develop communication between Chisinau and Comrat and improve ties, in order to coexist in peace and harmony,” Constantinov said.

Both Moldovan and Gagauz MPs present at the event welcomed the creation and institutionalization of the working group, noting that they would take efforts to meet the current expectations.

“The Gagauz authonomy is part of Moldova. As other Moldovan administrative authorities would probably also want an efficient communication between central and regional territories, I am confident that this desire will be achieved. I believe it is necessary to do our best to align the Gagauz legislation with the national one,” MP Roman Botan said.

The head of the commission for human rights and inter-ethnic relations, Vladimir Turcanu touched upon the group’s activity principles based on the observance of the Constitution, trust and tolerance. “Besides being responsible for the harmonization of the national legislation with the Gagauz one, the group must also help the autonomy achieve a total integration, and thus, its results should set an example for the Transnistrian region,” MP Vladimir Turcanu said.

“We are looking forward to a positive dynamics. We may confidently say that it is a dialogue platform able to achieve the group’s goals. However, in order to do so, we need to take high legislative and institutional efforts,” Gagauz MP Gheorghii Leiciu.

The working group for ensuring the functionality of the Gagauz autonomy within the framework of the Moldovan legislation and the autonomy’s special status was created at the initiative of Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, via parliament’s decision No 206 of 20 November 2015. It is meant to ensure the cooperation mechanism between the Moldovan parliament the Gagauz Popular Assembly.

(Editor A. Raileanu)