Although the law on voluntary amalgamation applies nationwide, in the Gagauz Autonomous Region there are, for now, no initiatives by local authorities to initiate this process. The statement belongs to Diana Chiriac, head of the LPA Directorate within the State Chancellery, and was made at the public debate “Public administration reform in Gagauz Autonomous Region”, organized by the IPN Press Agency. According to Diana Chiriac, no decision to initiate voluntary amalgamation has been adopted in the region, even though the central authorities have presented the procedures and advantages of the reform to the mayors.
Diana Chiriac mentioned that the special status of UTA Gagauzia is protected both by the Constitution and by the Law on the legal status of autonomy, and the legal framework for voluntary amalgamation was developed taking into account these peculiarities.
“UTA Gagauzia has a special status that is not only enshrined in the special law on the status of autonomy, but also in the Constitution. On the other hand, the law on voluntary amalgamation takes into account the specifics of autonomy. But one thing is clear, the reform has been initiated throughout the territory of the Republic of Moldova, it also reflects on UTA Gagauzia”, explained Diana Chiriac.
According to her, despite the discussions held with the mayors from the region, so far no official decision has been taken to initiate the process of voluntary amalgamation.
“In UTA Gagauzia we have no decision to initiate voluntary amalgamation. There were some intentions outlined between the mayor of Comrat and the Ferapontievca town hall. We had discussions with the mayors from the autonomy, we were there at their request, to explain to them what the amalgamation procedure is and what are the opportunities. There were good discussions, but at the moment we have no decision to initiate voluntary amalgamation”, said Diana Chiriac.
At the same time, the head of the APL Directorate within the State Chancellery pointed out that the situation at the national level is different, the process of voluntary amalgamation being in full swing. “At the country level, we have 1,150 initiation decisions. This is just about intention decisions. But we can already talk about clear decisions of voluntary amalgamation and this number is increasing every week. At present, we have 42 final decisions of voluntary amalgamation. But this number changes from day to day”, said Diana Chiriac.
Disclaimer: This material was developed by the IPN Press Agency, within the project “Local Government Reform in Dialogue”, financed by the Ministry of Culture from the Media Subsidy Fund.
