Bashkan Irina Vlah called on the political parties, in the name of the citizens who live in ATU Gagauzia, not to politicize the legislative proposals concerning the special status of Gagauzia. She said that these bills, which were given a first reading on December 3, were finished in 2016, but the political debates stopped their adoption, IPN reports.

After the meeting of the working group on Gagauzia held on December 15, Irina Vlah said now that Moldova elected its President for the next four years and there is a valid Parliament, ATU Gagauzia banks on board support for these bills that deserve to be examined carefully. “The experts can explain in detail the meaning of each provision and what our expectations of them are,” stated the Bashkan.

Attending the event, Parliament Speaker Zinaida Grechanyi noted the results achieved by the working group for Gagauzia and thanked its members for the accomplishments, saying it is important that a consensus should be reached on the bills drafted by the common group of Moldova’s Parliament and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia for the final reading.

Sweden’s Ambassador to Moldova Anna Lyberg said Sweden has supported the dialogue process since 2015 and will continue to make effort for this sustainable platform to make progress. This can be achieved step by step, with the central institutions and the territorial administrative units working together to identify the best solutions and to build an efficient and functional mechanism based on confidence, professionalism and dialogue.

On December 3, the MPs of the Party of Socialists and the For Moldova Platform, which includes the MPs of the Shor Party, adopted in the first reading a package of laws on ATU Gagauzia. One of the bills says any amendment to the law on the special legal status of Gagauzia can be adopted by Parliament only after this is endorsed by the People’s Assembly of Comrat.