Civil society platform “For Europe” launched a call for the pro-European parties that passed the electoral threshold to be consistent and not to endanger Moldova's European course. The members of the platform asked the parties' representatives to be transparent in the negotiations for the new government coalition.
Lilia Snegureac, secretary of the platform and head of the Resource Center “Dialog-Pro”, told a press conference at IPN that now more than ever, politicians must fulfill their promises made to the people. One of the citizens' basic rights is access to information. “The negotiations between the pro-European parties are secret and this fuels the people's lack of trust in the functioning of democratic institutions. The citizen must be treated with respect and mustn't be viewed only as a tool to come to power”, said Snegureac.
She added that civil society did honestly support European integration as the strategic prospect for the development of Moldova and used all the available legal tools to promote the European course of the country and to assist, to the extent its capacities allowed, any government willing to carry out structural reforms and modernization according to European norms and standards.
Viorel Cibotaru, head of the European Institute of Political Studies in Moldova, stressed that civil society won't tolerate secrecy and the substitution of negotiations for trading between parties. The analyst said that there were confirmed contacts between party leaders and information leaks presented in a light that is similar to blackmail. This is only further proof for the need of transparency regarding the formation of the new coalition and the algorithm of its exercise of the legislative and executive mandate.
Lilia Carasciuc, director of Transparency International – Moldova, said that civil society must really insist on transparency in these negotiations. Secret agreements will only raise more questions. Society is too disappointed in some of the actions of former coalitions and that is why civil society must participate in negotiations and ensure more transparency.
Sorin Mereacre, chairman of the East European Foundation, suggested parties should start from zero and reset the negotiations. According to him, a large participation of society is necessary to identify the best candidates for governmental offices.
Civil society platform “For Europe” is a voluntary association of Moldovan NGOs and its goal is to strengthen the country's path towards European integration and democratic development. The platform was founded on June 30, 2014, and includes 53 NGOs. The press conference was supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation as part of the project “European integration as a national idea with the potential to strengthen Moldovan society”, implemented by the IPN News Agency.
