The Chisinau councilors of the European People’s Party of Moldova (PPEM) call on the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to appraise the bill on the status of Chisinau municipality. In the March 31 meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council, the PPEM councilors asked their colleagues from the other groups to sign the requisition, IPN reports.

The councilors of the PPEM consider the way in which this bill drafted by a group of Liberal MPs was registered, without preliminary consulting the local authorities, runs counter to a number of legal provisions. The given law will not solve the existing problems, but will limit the powers of the municipal councilors.

The PPEM asks the Council of Europe bodies to inform the Moldovan authorities about the withdrawal of the given bill from the agenda of the parliamentary debates. These also ask that the European authority should request the Moldovan authorities to initiate public discussions on the status of Chisinau municipality and to set up an extended working group consisting of representatives of the Municipal Council, the Chisinau City Hall, Parliament and civil society to draft a bill to create the legal framework on decentralization and local self-government.

The councilors also request to create appropriate conditions for effectively ensuring the free access of any municipal councilor and representative of civil society to the examination and public discussion of the bill.

Earlier, the bill on the status of Chisinau municipality was criticized by representatives of a number of groups of the Municipal Council and of civil society. These consider that the given law is aimed at diminishing the powers of the Council and at increasing the powers of the mayor general of Chisinau municipality.