The Moldovan Parliament fulfilled practically all the commitments made to the Council of Europe, say the Moldovan governors. At the same time, Opposition representatives say that despite the changes in facade, Moldova witnesses more declines than progress. The authorities will continue to implement democratic reforms in the interest of the citizens, said Speaker Marian Lupu at a meeting with the Director General of Political Affairs of the Council of Europe Jean-Louis Laurens on December 11. The Speaker said that the Parliament lags behind with the draft law on political parties and with the draft code on education. The legislators will examine the bill on political parties in final reading by the end of the current session. When the law is adopted, the Parliament will prepare a report on the way in which the Moldovan MPs implemented the recommendations included in the analysis of the European experts and will send it to Strasbourg. Marian Lupu also said that at the start of the spring session, the Parliament will discus the draft code on education and the bill on local public finances. After passed in first reading, the documents will be submitted to the Council of Europe for inspection. According to the Parliament’s press service, the two officials welcomed the steps taken by the Moldovan Parliament to adjust the national legislation to the European standards, stressing the importance of adequately implementing the laws. The indulgence that the European organisations show to the Communist government is only a tactic to prevent Moldova’s fatal slipping into an anti-European direction, the president of Moldova Noastra Alliance Party (AMN) Serafim Urecheanu told the European official at a meeting. The AMN leader told Jean-Louis Laurens that the democratic and intellectual elites understands and approves of this tactic, but the largest part of the population is manipulated and thinks that Europe accepts or ignores the realities generated by the Communist government. This distorted truth propagated through the state-controlled press makes many people lose the hope in future and the trust in the democratic institutions and values, Serafim Urecheanu said. The AMN leader enumerated a number of problems among which the refusal to reform the Prosecutor’s Office, the political control over justice and press, the corruption of judges etc. Instead of administrative autonomy in the relations with the local authorities, we witness absolute centralization of the prerogatives and public finances, Serafim Urecheanu stressed. Without commenting on these assertions, the European official said that the discussion will help him put appropriate questions to the representatives of the power, a communiqué from AMN says. Jean-Louis Laurens is in Moldova on a fact-finding visit.