The MPs gave a first reading to a bill that updates the list of persons who can benefit from diplomatic passport. The list now will not include the president of the Court of Auditors, the president of the Superior Council of Prosecutors and the director general of the Customs Service, IPN reports.

The speaker of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, the secretary general of the President’s staff, the secretary general of the Government, the secretary general of Parliament, the Government’s standing representative to the European Court of Human Rights, the chairperson of the Chamber of Trade and Industry and the institution managers who are appointed by Parliament were struck off the list of those who are entitled to diplomatic passports.

Among the advisers to the President and Prime Minister, only those in charge of foreign policy will be able to receive such passports.

“The holding of a diplomatic passport is first of all a big responsibility and is not an easy opportunity for benefitting from privileges and immunity. The current situation and the legislation that regulate the obtaining of diplomatic or service passports should be amended and adjusted to the European and international standards,” said the author of the bill, MP Iurie Reniță.

He presented another bill, which was also given a first reading, by which the Law on the Diplomatic Service is amended. The main amendments oblige the functionaries of the diplomatic service to know two languages of international circulation, not to be party members and to refrain from expressing in public their political beliefs. The bill is to be merged with another similar bill drafted by the Government for the second reading.