​PARLIAMENT ADOPTS 2017 ACTION PLAN OF AA IMPLEMENTATION

On Friday, the Moldovan Parliament adopted the plan of actions to be undertaken by the legislature in 2017 to implement the EU-Moldova Association Agreement. The parliamentary majority of 56-of-101 MP voted for the document despite the opposition’s vociferous objections.

Parliament Chairman Andrian Candu said presenting the Action Plan that it contains 111 measures to be undertaken this year. These include bills, other steps necessary for AA implementation, measures of parliamentary control, various indicators and timeframes for realization of the actions.

“This plan is the list of the Parliament’s minimal commitments for 2017. We can make changes in the plan during the year. Of course, other bills and documents will be considered by us as usual, in parallel with the plan. Time and again, we will be organizing public discussions of the plan and its realization”, said Candu.

Socialist MP Vlad Turcan stated that the document needs to be considered in parliamentary standing committees “because most of deputies have no idea about its contents”.

Liberal Democrat Tudor Deliu stated that the plan had been prepared “exclusively for European donors – to show them that the Parliament does something. We have the Association Agreement, which is but an action plan of what Moldova must do. So, it is not quite clear why we should adopt an action plan for the realization of an action plan”.

Communist Party Chairman Vladimir Voronin stood up in support of Deliu: “The plan was scribbled in haste to mislead our development partners. It is clear even now that the plan will not give any results and will not lead to higher living standards to bring them closer to European ones. The paper has been drawn up only for justification of the spending of Budget means and foreign loans and grants”, stated the former President of Moldova.

Despite the insistent requests by deputies from three opposition factions to give one week for considering the document in standing committees, the majority just put the question to the vote and adopted it.

According to the plan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration will be presenting reports on plan realization at the end of each Session of the Parliament.

The plan contains bills on consideration of political dialog, on domestic reforms, on external policy and security, prevention of conflicts, international cooperation in combating terrorism, supremacy of law, and other measures to implement the Association Agreement.