Chisinau, January 24 (Infotag). The Acţiunea Europeană [European Action] socio-political movement says the Moldovan Ministry of Justice is deliberately marking time, and would not register the new formation for so long.

Its Chairman Anatol Petrenco told a news conference in Infotag today Acţiunea Europeană is suing the Ministry in court, and the first hearing into the Movement vs. MoJ case was held at the Appeals Chamber on January 23.

The Chamber has adjourned the hearings until January 30, having demanded from the Ministry to produce evidence that a part of the citizens’ signatures, raised in favor of the Acţiunea Europeană registration, were really forged, as the MoJ maintains.

Petrenco explained that the Ministry objects to only 130 signatures in question – of the total number of 6,639 the citizens put. By law, it is necessary to have 5,000 valid signatures for a new party to get registered. Therefore, even if the 130 are really false as the MoJ claims, the remaining 6.5 thousand signatures are more than enough for the registration, he said.

In his words, the Ministry is working to not let Acţiunea Europeană onto the Moldovan political arena, “and as long as such crying violations of legislation take place in Moldova, the country will continue to be under the Council of Europe monitoring.

The Chairman also said that if Acţiunea Europeană fails to find justice at home, its lawyers Nicolae Rosca and Alexandru Tanase will seek justice with the European Court of Human Rights.

The movement’s statutory congress was held in Chisinau in October 2006.