The European Union is expecting the Moldovan authorities to adopt a law on party financing that would stipulate the method of providing financial support to political parties from the state budget. According to the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola, the current government says that the budget does not include money for funding parties, but in such conditions at least the transparency and democracy levels inside the parties should be increased, IPN reports.

In a debate forum centering on Moldova’s European integration, Pirkka Tapiola said that democracy at ballot boxes is not enough for ensuring democratic processes. According to him, the lack of sustainability of the political parties is dangerous as they risk collapsing when the leaders leave.

“The parties must have internal college bodies. They must be based on internal democracy and programs, while the persons should be included in party lists as a result of the democratic exercise. There must be procedures for renewing the parties at internal level. It’s not only about financing of parties, but also about multilateral transformations. Society that functions according to a top-down approach is not based on democracy. It comes from an empire that works based not on the social contract, but on a party and the elite that has privileges and advantages,” said the ambassador.

He also said that the state must allow everyone to take part in governance. The best thing that it can do in this respect is to adopt a law on party financing. “It is Moldova that must undertake a commitment for these reforms as the European Union cannot change the method of functioning of political parties. We can only say from our experience how they should function. The implementation of such reforms will be the biggest condition imposed by the EU and it will lead to the development of a democratic society where there will be the citizen in the center,” stated Pirkka Tapiola.

The first annual Conference of the Moldovan European Integration Debate Forum was organized by the Foreign Policy Association and the German foundation Friedrich Ebert, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova.