The last days of 2017 turned out to be very productive for the State Information Agency “Moldpres”, which provided the readers with three issues of the Official Gazette (O.G.). This way there were supported the efforts of Parliament and the main laws that will govern the economic and social life of the country in 2018  were presented to society in only two weeks of their adoption (in the second O.G. that was issued on 29.12.17, No. 464-470): State Budget Law (No. 289, December 15, 2017), pages 59-115, Law on the mandatory health insurance funds (No. 280, December 15, 2017), pages 21-24 and Law on the state social insurance budget (No. 281, December 15, 2017), pages 24-33. Even if some said that these important documents were adopted in a rather alert regime, it is good that we see the full part of the glass and we will start off the New Year on the right foot. We will yet allow the specialists to analyze things and draw conclusions, especially as regards the budget deficit, which is impressive (4 713 900 lei), and the receiving of external loans of 7 713 738 lei.

The current issue of the O.G. also includes other important documents (or changes to these) referring to the financial-banking sector, which are indispensable for implementing the aforementioned documents.

By Law (No. 225, December 15, 2017), pages 3-8, there were adjusted 18 important legislative acts (Fiscal Code, No. 1163/1997, Customs Code, No. 1149/2000, Civil Code, No. 1107/2002 etc.), which regulate the activity on the capital market. The goal is to harmonize the existing regulatory framework for ensuring coherence, consistency and balance between competing regulations. The law also amended several articles of the Contravention Code of the Republic of Moldova (No. 218/2008), concerning penalties for abuses on the capital market (art. 300), non-observance of the requirements concerning the activity of professional participants in the non-banking financial market (art. 304.2) and non-observance of the rules regulating the activity on the non-banking financial market (art. 304.3).

The Law concerning the additional surveillance of banks, insurers/re-insurers and investment companies that belong to a financial conglomerate (No. 250, December 1, 2017), pages 9-16, was adopted to fulfill the commitments made by Moldova through the Association Agreement signed with the EU and to address the problem of prudential risks. It lays down additional rules for surveying the regulated entities that form part of financial conglomerates. The law will take effect on March 29, 2018. Until January 29, 2019, the Government, the National Bank of Moldova and the National Commission for Financial Markets are to adjust their regulations to the given law.

Law No. 273, of December 15, 2017 (pages18-19) supplements Law No. 171/2012 concerning the capital market, namely its provisions regarding the procedures for annulling, issuing and selling shares held in breach of the regulations concerning the quality of shareholders of banks (art. 11.1), and Law No. 202/2017 concerning the activity of banks (about the same matter).

There were also published changes to Law No. 1134/1997 on joint stock companies, Law No. 121/2007 regarding the administration and nationalization of public property, Law on public finances and budgetary-fiscal responsibilities No. 181/2014, adopted by Law No. 274 of December 15, 2017 (pages 20-21).

The Law to amend Article 411 of the Law on health protection No. 411/1995 (No. 259, December 7, 2017) brings good news for a category of persons who suffer from oncological diseases. Thus, as of January 1, 2018, all these persons will be able to access oncological medical, prophylaxis, diagnostic, treatment and surveillance services, at public and private medical-sanitary institutions, on condition that the given services are provided by specialists in oncology and hematology.

The O.G. No. 471-472 of December 30 contains the Law to amend and supplement legislative acts (No. 213, December 21, 2017). Given that the Law on the status of Chisinau municipality (No. 136) was adopted in 2016, on the initiative of the Government there were made changes and supplements to some of documents that regulate the right of the mayor general to form the own staff. The posts of district head and deputy district head were included in the category of public posts. An ambiguous situation was thus eliminated. On the one hand, the district head, under the law on the local public administration, was the mayor’s representative at the local level, but the appointment and dismissal of the district head were negotiated with the Municipal Council.

In order to stimulate the implementation of non-polluting technologies and take other measures to reduce the emissions of pollutants in the environment and to diminish production and packing waste, there was amended and supplemented Law No. 1540/1998 concerning the payment for environment pollution (No. 313, December 22, 2017). To ensure the achievement of the proposed desideratum, new taxes were set for persons who produce and/or import packing made from plastic, polyethylene, aluminum and others and these taxes depend on the pollution level.

The latest issue also contains the changes made to the Government Decision No. 594 of August 2, 2011 (No. 1097, December 19, 2017). This was approved to transpose Council Directive 2000/29/EC of 8 May 2000 on protective measures against the introduction into the Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products and against their spread within the Community. Later, in 2014, the European bodies agreed to substantially change the provisions of the Directive and the national executive thus also made changes to the own document (pages 19-63).

For conformity, Monitor of Official Gazette

P.S. In private discussions, some of the readers of the articles presented in this rubric said they encounter difficulties when reading documents that amend earlier adopted documents in the O.G., asserting the essence of the amendments is not clear. I presume they are right, but I inform them this way too that the situation can be overcome. There are now sufficient legal resources that clarify the situation: the application weblex.md, for example, contains multiple and very efficient instruments for accessing the modified document, references to the document and its history. The website lex.justice.md is also of assistance in this regard. They should be only visited when need be.