Moldovan parliament, civil society start consultations to amend legislation on transparency in decision-making process

Chisinau, 26 October /MOLDPRES/ - The parliament and civil society have started consultations to amend the legislative acts on transparency in the decision-making process, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.  

The working group between the parliament and civil society for strengthening the cooperation within the decision-making process today held its first meeting, chaired by Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu.

The speaker welcomed the involvement of the civil society in improving the legislation, enhancing the decision-taking transparency, as well as the citizens’ more active involvement in the decision-making process.  

“The working group is set to turn to account the partnership with the civil society to optimize the parliament’s work. We expect legislative amendments, so that the civil society has a greater role in everything meaning legislative creation, so that there is transparency on behalf of the parliament, on the one hand, and on the other hand, a control of the society over the parliament’s activity. It is about a bigger range of instruments not only in terms of working out acts, but also of parliamentary control,” Andrian Candu said.  

The speaker urged the civil society’s representatives to make legislative proposals, in order to provide more transparency to the decision-making process, which are to be initiated as legislative drafts, discussed in commissions and passed by the parliament in the optimum periods of time.  

At the same time, the parliament, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNPD), will organize topic-related workshops for representatives of the civil society, MPs, and civil servants of the parliament’s secretariat, in order to improve the legislative process and promote transparency in the parliamentary work and decision-taking process.  

The civil society’s representatives suggested that the parliament updates the action plan on the Civil Society Development Strategy and adopts a string of legislative amendments and completions due to ensure more efficiency and transparency in the decision-making process. The associative sector considers that the process of elaboration and adoption of the legislation should be more predictable. The civil society’s representatives suggested that the parliament makes public detailed legislative plans, which might be consulted with interested organizations at any stage of the legislative process. Also, the civil society’s representatives requested that the proposals be considered by specialized parliamentary commissions.  

The working group for analyzing civil society’s proposals, in order to amend legislative acts on transparency in the decision-making process, was created at a proposal by Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, following discussions within a yearly conference titled, Cooperation between Parliament and Civil Society, held in July 2016. The working group, made up of MPs from all parliamentary factions and groups, representatives of the civil society, parliament’s secretariat and Justice Ministry, will carry out its activity till late next December.     

In late last July, the parliament’s standing bureau approved a decision establishing a string of measures to strengthen the parliament’s cooperation with the civil society within the decision-making process. It is about, in particular, the creation of working groups, which will elaborate amendments, in order to improve the legislative framework to enhance the decision-taking transparency and revise the Civil Society Development Strategy.    

(Editor A. Raileanu)