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Briefness first and foremost – March 18, 2019 IPN digest


https://www.ipn.md/en/briefness-first-and-foremost-march-18-2019-ipn-digest-7978_1047689.html

Moldova will purchase more expensive electric power from April 1. The average purchase price of electric power as of April 1 will be 54.2 USD/MWh, up 2% compared with the current price.

A guide launched by the Association of Energy Consumers of Moldova comes with pieces of advice for users as to how to act in case of particular practices of electric power operators that end with additional costs in bills. The Association’s president Nicolae Mogoreanu said the guide was worked out based on concrete examples experienced by consumers. Being correctly informed, these consumers could recover the extra money they paid. Based on the practices explained in the guide, the consumers will be able to examine their bills in an informed way. If they identify irregularities, they can report these and seek explanations from the supplier.

Energy expert Ion Preaşcă said particular development show the natural gas tariffs should be adjusted. According to Ion Preaşcă, the tariff for consumers should be adjusted gradually so as to avoid the situation of 2015, when a sudden rise was needed and this negatively affected the population. As to the fact that Moldovagaz hasn’t yet requested to increase the tariffs for end-users even if the import prices rose, the expert said Moldovagaz is somehow controlled indirectly and depends on particular political factors and this refers not only to Moldovagaz, but also to the National Agency for Energy Regulation.

The IPN Experts said the five versions of the President (concerning the future government coalition – e.n.) can be actually reduced to two: which of the other two parliamentary forces – the PSRM and ACUM – would accept or would be forced to become the government partner of the PDM? An eventual ad-hoc coalition between the PSRM and ACUM is less probable if not almost impossible owing to a series of factors: serious lack of confidence caused by the  mishmashes staged by the PSRM, alongside the PDM, against ACUM; pursuing of opposite strategic goals by the two forces that, after an eventual ad-hoc coalition, would anyway become antagonistic, especially because the PSRM keeps the clause concerning the scrapping of the Moldova – EU Association Agreement in its political program; the very big risk that an eventual coalition between the PSRM and ACUM, at a time when the law enforcement and regulatory institutions remain loyal to the PDM, will end immediately after it is announced owing to criminal cases against some of the leaders, including informal ones.

So, we will yet see how the dilemma of a coalition between the PDM and one of the two forces can be solved given that the bloc ACUM, according to its official documents, was created to free the captured state from the oligarchic regime established by the PDM. It is thus hard to believe that the leaders of ACUM can accept a government coalition with the PDM. On the other hand, for the PSRM there is no taboo as to the formation of a coalition with the PDM. There can be only the fear not to be devoured by this, as it happened in the case of the PCRM, PLDM, the Liberal Party (PL), the European People’s Party of Moldova (PPEM), especially because the law enforcement agencies are under the effective control of the PDM, noted the experts.

Even if it is a risky affair, the political cooperation with the Democrats offers a “coexistence” area that can become useful. Moreover, the constitution of the government coalition eliminates the pressure of snap elections that could be held simultaneously with the local elections, political pundit Dionis Cenușa stated in a feature article for IPN Agency. In practical terms, to cooperate with the Democrats and to avoid “traps”, the Socialists need guarantees in the form of the redistribution of particular state institutions and, mandatorily, the liquidation of the criminal cases, if these were initiated against members of the PSRM, said the expert.

The Bulgarian company Doverie-Invest, which obtained the National Bank of Moldova’s prior permission, purchased the undividable holding of 3 173 751 shares of the bank of systemic importance Moldindconbank for 764,048,815.74 lei at an outcry auction held on the regulated market of the Stock Exchange on March 18.

The relations between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation are currently not in an ideal state, but there are no problems that cannot be solved between the two states, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the State Duma of Russia Konstantin Kosachev stated in a meeting with Moldova’s Ambassador in Moscow Andrei Neguța. “If there is will on the part of both sides, we can count on an advance,” noted Kosachev, being quoted by TASS News Agency.

More than 1,500 persons – representatives of the municipality, the NGO sector and business entities, students and citizens of the capital city – took part in the cleanup event staged in Chisinau on March 16. Most of the volunteers, 1,150 in number, became involved in the cleaning of the Byk riverbed. About 400 persons took part in the cleanup of the rivulets Durlești and Holbocica and of the lake situated near the Șoseaua Muncești St. There were gathered about 90 trucks of waste. Similar activities were carried out near the rivulets Malina Mică and Țiganca, the lakes in “Valea Trandafirilor” Park and other places.

Details on IPN!