Over 50 NGOs demand the creation of a body of observers representing civil society and possibly of European institutions to monitor the negotiations on the new government coalition and ensure by their presence the flexibility of the involved parties. The demand was put forward by the civil society platform “Pro Europe” during a press conference at IPN.
Platform secretary Lilia Snegureac, head of the Resource Center “Dialog-Pro”, said that the absence of civil society from negotiations might endanger the continuation of Moldova's European course. She reminded that one of the citizens' basic rights is access to information and secret negotiations between Pro-European parties can only lead to further mistrust of the people in the democratic institutions. She added that people must be respected and not treated as mere instruments to come to power.
Viorel Cibotaru, head of the European Institute of Political Studies in Moldova, stated that civil society must participate in the negotiations regarding the algorithm of the exercise of the Parliament's and the Cabinet's mandates, as this isn't only a private matter between political parties. “We must take part in the discussion of the algorithm because it can be different. If it is to the liking of the political class, it doesn't mean we'd like as well. And we don't want to deal with this post-factum, when all the decisions have already been taken”, explained the analyst.
The chairman of the East European Fundation, Sorin Mereacre, stressed that transparent negotiations would boost trust in the state institutions and the government. “Currently, there is zero trust. People didn't vote for these parties because they like them, but for geopolitical reasons”, said Sorin Mereacre.
Transparency-International Moldova head Lilia Carasciuc said that even though more transparency in the negotiations might not be convenient for political parties, civil society must insist for open and clear negotiations.
Civil society platform “For Europe” is a voluntary association of Moldovan NGOs and its goal is to strengthen the country's path towards European integration and democratic development. The platform was founded on June 30, 2014, and includes 53 NGOs. The press conference was supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation as part of the project “European integration as a national idea with the potential to strengthen Moldovan society”, implemented by the IPN News Agency.
