Moldovan Speaker Marian Lupu thinks that is time for Moldova to request to be removed from the monitoring of the Council of Europe (CoE). The Speaker’s statement was made during his speech at the PACE Conference of Presidents of Parliaments, taking place on September 20-21, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a press release from the Moldovan Parliament, Marian Lupu said that the arguments for promoting Moldova to the post-monitoring stage are based on the confidence that Moldova meets the requirements to be promoted on merit. “In our country, the reforms, especially those for strengthening democratic institutions, have been resumed and accelerated since 2009. Everything that has happened after the coming into power of a pro-democratic coalition has changed both Moldova’s image abroad and the internal processes in the country”, Marian Lupu told his European counterparts. As regards the country’s progress in implementing democratic reforms, Marian Lupu communicated that in the last three years Moldova made important steps in fundamental areas and will continue on this path to ensure the functionality of democratic institutions. Political analyst Mihai Cernencu told Info-Prim Neo that he saw no serious obstacles in this process of transition to the post-monitoring stage. He said that many European rapporteurs assessed positively the situation in Moldova, especially the situation in the field of the freedom of expression. Besides, observed Cernencu, Moldova is the country that has been under the longest monitoring by the Council of Europe.