​MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT KEEPS ENJOYING ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARY VACATION, REFUSING TO DO PLENARY JOB

The Moldovan Parliament Permanent Bureau has decided to hold no plenary meetings of the legislative forum this week, having referred to the need for the parliamentarians to complete the election campaign, Parliament Secretary General Alla Popescu said to Infotag.

According to her, the decision was taken yet last week because the deputies preferred to focus on the second round of local elections due on June 28.

“The Parliament leadership is eligible to take such decision. The forum’s Rules of Procedure has not been violated”, said Popescu.

Chairman of the parliamentary Standing Committee for National Security, Defense and Public Order Veaceslav Untila stated to Infotag that after the elections, the deputies will get down to business and will manage with all their tasks.

Untila explained: “The country is holding local elections, so political parties need to focus on the significant event. Even if the Parliament’s work agenda is quite busy, we still have time until the end of the current Spring-Summer Session [end of July] and will pass all necessary bills. Starting from next week, the Parliament will start working in earnest, so there will be fewer vacations”.

Serafim Urechean, incumbent Chairman of the Moldovan Accounts Chamber and a former First Deputy Speaker of parliament, offered an opinion that the Parliament is able to adopt important laws before the approaching summer recess but, still, he is discontented with the forum’s poor efficiency.

“Elections politicize the society extremely. Lawmakers realize this, so in order to help their party candidates in the localities, they canvass instead of making their official job – passing laws”, said Serafim Urechean, who ran for Chisinau Mayor on June 14, but unsuccessfully.

Infotag’s dossier: The Republic of Moldova held its latest ordinary parliamentary elections last November 30, but the new Parliament was able to start its “de-jure regular” plenary work only in the second half of January 2015. Although the legislative forum must hold plenary meetings every Thursday and Friday, it has convened for only 18 plenary meetings over the past 5 months (some of which lasted 20-25 minutes), for one extraordinary session, and for a solemn meeting that had no relation to lawmaking activities – dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the national flag. The said 5-month period was decorated with 4 extraordinary vacations under both political and religious pretexts – the Easter, Remembrance Day, Victory Day, local elections, during which not a word was uttered about the salaries, which the deputies continue to receive even during such vacations.

The Spring-Summer Session is to be completed at the end of July, during which time the Parliament is supposed to consider and pass nearly 200 draft laws and other documents, not to mention an additional, extraordinary mission – to form a new government and vote confidence in its lineup and work program.