IPN Moldovan politicians comply only minimally the EU's anticorruption recommendations: they create new institutions, but provide them with insufficient resources, they appoint credible experts, but set unclear duties for them, adopt the required laws, but dilute their content. These are the conclusions of the 3rd issue of the Policy Brief, IPN reports.
The report reads that although new institutions have been created, there hasn't been a general strategy, but only single steps meant to meet specific requirements of the EU. Institutional fragmentation is a serious problem, causing many jams and opportunities for those interested in these jams. For example, the corruption investigations are started by the National Anticorruption Center or by the Ministry of the Interior, but after the initial stage, the case must be supervised by a prosecutor from the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, a special division of the Prosecutor General's Office. This means that the responsibility for a single investigation is shared between different institutions and the police officers and the prosecutors are engaged in a kind of competition instead of a partnership.
The report authors note that in Moldova the suspicion that political oligarchs unofficially control these weak institutions is widespread. The distinction between politicians and businessmen is hard to make in Moldova and political parties are annexes of people from the richest Moldovans top rankings. Personal conflicts between former Prime Minister Vlad Filat and the former Deputy Speaker Vlad Plahotniuc have cause several government crises that undermined the efficiency of the Pro-European Coalition. Many voters have come to identify the EU itself with the governing coalition and this perception of the people is becoming increasingly frustrating for European diplomats in Chisinau.
The review notes that despite all the crises, the Association Agreement between Moldova and the EU was eventually signed. It is accompanied by an Association Agenda, which proposes a list of priorities for the joint framework of actions in 2014-2016, designed to facilitate the implementation of the Agreement. The chapters on Justice and Human Rights set ambitious goals regarding the fight against corruption, recommending the Moldovan government to ensure the independence of the National Anticorruption Center, to take measures for strengthening the independence of justice institutions, to apply a new system of disciplinary accountability for judges, to strengthen the operational capacity of the National Integrity Commission, etc.
The report authors stress that on a medium term, the EU should encourage the merger of Moldova's National Anticorruption Center and the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office in order to bring together the investigators and the prosecutors, the revision the juridical framework of the National Integrity Commission in order to clarify its responsibilities and the division of power within the institution's leadership, and a review of criminal and administrative law in order to introduce serious punishments for acts of corruption.
Policy Brief appeared as part of the EU-Moldova Think Tank Dialogue, a project funded by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Official Development Assistance Programme, in partnership with the UN Development Programme – Bratislava Regional Center.
