Politics

PRESIDENT DODON SAYS MOLDOVAN LEGISLATION SHOULD BE IN HARMONY WITH GAGAUZIA’S MAIN LAW

22 january, 2020

The [later-time] national legislation of the Republic of Moldova should be brought into harmony with the [earlier-adopted] Ulojenie – the Main Law of Gagauzia. Such opinion was expressed by Moldova President Igor Dodon on Tuesday after his meeting in Comrat town with the deputies of the Popular Assembly [parliament] of the southern Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia.

The head of state remarked during his subsequent briefing for journalists: “This is a long-standing problem, which would not be resolved for over 25 years. I support the adoption of laws in the form they were agreed-on with the Gagauzia Popular Assembly. But in 2018, the then-parliamentary [Democratic] majority decided to adopt laws in a different form. Today in Comrat we discussed inter alia the procedure of our interaction and advancement with our GPA colleagues. We have agreed that they will send me to Chisinau the said laws in an updated form, and we will submit them to the Parliament for approval from the President’s behalf”, explained President Dodon.

The head of state reminded that his previous full-sized meeting with GPA deputies took place in 2018, after which he kept refusing to promulgate the package of Gagauzia laws concerned.

“Two years ago, the Gagauzia lawmakers asked me to not sign those laws – the ones agreed-on with you but then adopted in Chisinau in a different version. So, I did not sign them”, said the President.

Igor Dodon is convinced that Chisinau and Comrat vitally need dialog – at all platforms.

“We had a very good dialog here today. To achieve a real interaction, we have to use all platforms available, including essentially through re-launching the activities of the joint working group of the Moldovan Parliament, the Gagauzia Popular Assembly and civil society representatives”, stressed the President.

Dodon said that in the today’s dialog with the GPA deputies, the parties raised two blocks of questions – on de-concentration of some state agencies [the Tax Service, police etc.] and on social initiatives.

As was already reported by Infotag, in 2017 the Moldovan Parliament and GPA deputies jointly worked out 3 bills on amending those legal acts of the Republic of Moldova which failed to take into account the essential provisions in the laws on the special legal status of the Gagauzia autonomy. The adoption of such laws, which would bring the Republic of Moldova legislation in harmony with the earlier-adopted laws on the status of Gagauzia, are being insisted on by international organizations, too, in the person of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

However, when the said Comrat bills were scrutinized in the Moldovan Parliament, its Standing Committees introduced into the original documents a multitude of changes that were not agreed-upon with Gagauzia representatives. In particular, the Parliament denied Gagauzia the privilege of receiving “an individual level of state power”, besides the administrative-territorial units of the first and second levels. The Parliament replaced the “individual level” with “special status”. But this very special status had already been prescribed and stipulated in the 1994 Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia.

In 2017, the Moldovan Parliament approved two laws in the above-mentioned edited form, and the third law was put off until the following Autumn-Winter Session. The President sent the approved laws back to the Parliament for improvement, but the deputies did not return to the documents – neither in the previous Parliament nor in the incumbent one. The deputies of the pro-presidential Party of Socialists are insisting that these laws be adopted in the shape agreed-on with Gagauzia deputies, but the rest parliamentary factions would not support the Socialists.

President Dodon has promised to GPA deputies that the Moldovan Parliament would adopt the said laws in the version agreed-on with Comrat. Last November, he stated that would be done by December 23 i.e. by the 25th anniversary of the Gagauzia autonomy declaration. However, that failed to be done because there are no votes enough for that in the Parliament: the President’s stance is backed only by the Socialist faction.

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