Euromonitor says political dialogue between Moldova and the EU strengthened in fourth quarter of 2007

The ninth number of Euromonitor says that the political dialogue between Moldova and the EU was more dynamic in the fourth quarter of 2007, Info-Prim Neo reports. The report was presented on February 22, when it was three years of the signing of the Moldova-EU National Plan of Action. On this occasion, the director of the Association for Participative Democracy “Adept”, Igor Botan, said that in 2008 Moldova will have to remove the shortcomings identified in the area of independence of the judiciary and mass media, combating of corruption, the business climate. At the same time, the messages of the European officials say that the 2009 elections will be the most important test for Moldova and that they should be exemplary as long as Moldova has European aspirations, the expert said. Igor Botan considers that the EU will propose a preferential participation and cooperation agreement to Moldova similar to Ukraine’s and this is a good sign, according to the expert. Among the most important results achieved in implementing the EU-Moldova Plan of Action, the authors of the report mentioned the adoption of the visa facilitation and readmission agreements and of the Communication Strategy on the European Integration of Moldova, the granting of autonomous trade preferences. On the other hand, the experts pointed to such problems as the formalism in the cooperation between the authorities and the civil society, the intimidation of a crew of Pro TV Chisinau channel, the record number of cases lost by Moldova at the ECHR, the serious consequences of the drought and the rise in the electric power charges for the population. The experts said that Moldovan authorities’ efforts aimed at resuming the talks on the settlement of the Transnistrian dispute did not produce results. The most important progress is made by the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine, which contributed to the working out and implementation of the mechanism under which the Transnistrian economic entities can benefit from European commercial preferences, Igor Botan said. According to the Adept expert Sergiu Buscaneanu, while Moldova was being monitored, it remained with four shortcomings related to the activity of democratic institutions: non-adoption of the law on public meetings; the taking over of the temporary detention isolators by the Ministry of Justice from the Ministry of Internal Affairs; the lack of a mechanism for the social integration of detainees and the non-fulfillment of the obligation No.9 under which the state must provide financial support to mass media according to strict and objective criteria. Among other deficiencies identified by the experts are the politicisation of the public administration and the corruption, the insufficient transparency in the activity of the public administration and the legal system, the expanding of the trade deficit, hindrances to obtaining licences and certificates. As to social reforms, the director of the Analytical Centre “Expert-Grup”, Valeriu Prohnitchi, said that the adoption of the regulations concerning the completion of the work record book perpetuates the Soviet principles of the policy on personnel. The ninth number of the quarterly analytical publication Euromonitor was published with the support of Soros-Moldova Foundation as part of the project “EU-Moldova Action Plan: Document Accessible to the Public”, which is implemented by the Association for Participative Democracy “Adept” and the Analytical Centre “Expert-Grup”.