Moldovan premier says Council of Europe becomes agent of democratic changes in Moldova

Chisinau, 26 June /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip today gave a speech before the plenum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The PM referred to the importance of the partnership between Moldova and the Council of Europe and the essential reforms implemented in Moldova, with the support and in line with PACE’s recommendations, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

In the beginning of the speech, the prime minister highlighted that, during time, the Council of Europe had become an agent of the democratic changes in Moldova. “What connects us is a history of 22 years and 25 years of independence, felt through an entire string of  radical transformations: from the reformation and adjusting of the normative, constitutional framework, to the creation of institutions and changes of mentality,” Pavel Filip said.  

The prime minister emphasized the main results of Moldova’s cooperation with PACE and the Council of Europe’s monitoring committees. Among them, there are: implementation of the strategy of reforming the justice sector; entrance into force of the law on reformation of the prosecution institution; enforcement of the law on financing political parties and electoral campaigns; establishing an efficient mechanism of coordinating policies in the field of fighting the trafficking of human beings; carrying out the national strategy of decentralization; adoption of the strategy of strengthening the inter-ethnic relations in Moldova.    

Another ambitious and complicated reform is the one of public administration, with the government’s reorganization started. Also, measures were undertaken to improve the conditions of work for the business environment through reducing the bureaucracy, with special attention paid to the development of the IT sector.   

The prime minister stressed that all reforms underway were contained in the programmes on cooperation included in the new 2017-2020 Action Plan of the Council of Europe for Moldova, officially launched in Chisinau on 30 May 2017. In this context, he thanked CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland for the continuous support and the presence in Chisinau. “The earlier action plan, for 2013-2016, brought a string of palpable results nationally and I am sure that, along with the Council of Europe and the member states, we will manage to boost the getting of the expected impacts in the defining sectors of the Council of Europe,” Pavel Filip noted.    

At the same time, the PM praised the work of the joint mechanism of the Council of Europe – European Union programmatic cooperation framework for the Eastern Partnership countries. After two years of implementation, this instrument proved its usefulness for optimizing the allocation of resources to implement regional and bilateral topic-related projects.    

As for the Transnistrian conflict, Pavel Filip reiterated that the only way of its settlement is dialogue and if the true needs of the people are put above the ideologized positions, advancement will be possible on this segment.     

In the end of his speech, the prime minister underlined that Moldova’s principal goal remained the finishing of the procedure of monitoring by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – a priority included in the Moldovan government’s action programme and the action plan for 2016-2018.  

In this respect, Pavel Filip said that the government further relied on PACE’s support in applying the reforms and switching to the post-monitoring dialogue: “I assure you that ripe is ripe for this step to be made and to identify arguments and evidence due to back this natural desideratum. Moldova has a real potential to ensure a differentiated approach and its citizens deserve to be encouraged and assured that they have their place in the European space of the democratic values.”