Report on activity of parliament's working group with people's assembly of Gagauzia unveiled

Chisinau, 28 June /MOLDPRES/ - A report on the activity of the working group of the parliament with the Popular Assembly (local parliament) of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (UTA Gagauzia) for the first half of 2016 was unveiled at a working meeting today. Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, UTA Gagauzia Governor Irina Vlah, Chairman of the People’s Assembly Dmitrii Constantinov, lawmakers of the Moldovan parliament and the Gagauzian people’s assembly, representatives of development partners participated in the event, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.       

The document presents the activities carried out to ensure continuous a dialogue between the parliament and the people’s assembly. The co-chairwoman of the working group, MP Elena Bacalu has said that 21 decisions were adopted, which were submitted to authorities as recommendation, in order to identify needed solutions.  

The decisions relate to the use of international loans and means of the road fund in relation with UTA Gagauzia, distribution of money of the National Ecologic Fund for the last five years, setting up of a regional development agency in Gagauzia, as well as working out an action plan on the improvement of the social and economic situation in the autonomy for 2016-2019. At the same time, at a request by the working group, five places will be made available for the candidates for the posts of judge and prosecutor in UTA Gagauzia for the 2016 admission contest at the National Justice Institute, provided that, after finishing the courses, they are to work in Gagauzia. Also at a request by the members of the working group, starting from this year, the civil servants of the Gagauzian people assembly’s secretariat will make probations at the Moldovan parliament’s secretariat.

With the support of mediation partners from Crisis Management International, the MPs of the working group made working visits to three autonomous regions of the European Union: Southern Tyrol (Italy), Wales (United Kingdom) and Aland Islands (Finland), in order to take knowledge of the way the problems concerning the relation between the autonomous regions and central authorities are tackled and settled.   

At the meeting, the working group also presented a string of proposals for the amendment and completion of the legislation, in order to delimit the competences of the central authorities and those from the region. The proposals regard the laws on the special legal status of Gagauzia, Moldova’s administrative and territorial organization, administrative decentralization and approving the single classifier of public offices.

The parliament speaker noted that the working group benefited from every support of the parliament, and unveiling proposals on amending the legislation represented a first step to include them into the legislative process.

“The proposals will be submitted to the cabinet and represent an effort to improve the cooperation between the Chisinau authorities and the Comrat ones. The biggest problem which existed was related to the lack of knowledge of information, and because of the lack of communication, suspicions used to appear between both sides,” Andrian Candu said.    

For his part, the chairman of the Gagauzian People’s Assembly, Dmitrii Constantinov, welcomed the job done by the working group to strengthen the relations between the Chisinau and Comrat authorities. “We want the law on the legal status of Gagauzia to work, so that Gagauzia looks just as we want to,” Constantinov said.     

The report on the activity of the working group for ensuring, within the constitutional norms, the work of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia and the legislative provisions of Moldova in relation with the special status of UTA Gagauzia is to be published on the web-pages of the parliament and regional assembly and submitted to MPs for consideration.

(Editor M. Jantovan)