The MPs of the Party of Socialists, the Shor Party and For Moldova Platform on December 4 adopted a package of laws on ATU Gagauzia in the first reading. One of the bills provides that any amendment to the Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia can be adopted only after the People’s Assembly in Comrat approves of the changes by a majority of the votes of local deputies, IPN reports.

The proposal was drafted by a group of Socialist MPs. The authors said the proposed amendments were inspired by the recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Council of Europe, the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the experience of other autonomous regions studied by the working group that worked out the package of laws.

Another legislative proposal of the PSRM amends and supplements the law on the local public administration and the law on administrative decentralization so that the text “Authorities of the local public administration of special level” is added to the national legal framework. The bill also specifies the powers of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia.

Another bill, to amend and supplement the Law on the Territorial-Administrable Organization of the Republic of Moldova, provides that the words “districts, towns and villages” should be substituted with the words stipulated by the constitutional norm, such as “villages, towns, districts and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia”.

According to the PSRM, to exclude any inappropriate interpretation of the special status of ATU Gagauzia, it is introduced a new paragraph saying “The special status of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia is regulated by Article 111 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and the Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia (Gagauz-Yeri).

The bills are to be adopted in the final reading.