Moldovan MPs from more factions meet Venice Commission experts

Chisinau, 18 October /MOLDPRES/ - Representatives of the parliamentary majority and opposition today had a meeting with experts of the Venice Commission,  OSCE/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). The participants in the event discussed the issue of financing political parties in electoral campaigns.   

The leaders of the factions of the Party of Socialists (PSRM), Party of Communists (PCRM), Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM) and Liberal Party (PL) came successively to the discussions with the delegation of the Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR and GRECO.   

At the end of the meeting, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party (PDM), Sergiu Sarbu, noted that the discussions were focused, to a great extent, on the subject of financing political parties. “We talked about the implementation of earlier recommendations, possibility of financing parties from abroad, as well as about the powers of the Central Electoral Commission to check where the financings are coming from. We informed experts about the fact that the parliament fulfills recommendations by the Venice Commission, the threshold of donations to parties is significantly decreased and private persons due to donate more than 75,000 lei will be checked by the Tax Body,” Sarbu said.    

The leader of the PLDM faction, Tudor Deliu, said that the meeting with the European experts had taken place following an earlier request. “We tried to answer some questions put by representatives of the delegations as to the law on financing parties, whether the legislation in force ensures fairness for parties and on our opinion on the financing of parties by private people from abroad,” Deliu specified.    

He noted that the representatives of the parliamentary parties had different opinions on the way of financing the parties and showed discontent with the present stipulations of the legislation.

In 2015, the parliament voted the law on political parties, which establishes that the political formations can no longer be financed with money coming from abroad.

(Reporter A. Zara, editor L. Alcaza)