Moldova starts harmonising national legislation with the Acquis

Moldova is expected to start this year a systematic process of harmonising the national legislation with the Community Acquis, after the Parliament passed in the summer of 2006 the Law on the amendment of laws regarding the legislative and normative documents, and in November 2006, the Mechanism for harmonising the national legislation with the EU law. The experts say that the given mechanism is designed to provide essential clarity in the process of aligning the legislation in order to avoid delays. A number of seminars aimed at informing in detail central authorities, which regulate the process of harmonising the national legislation with the Acquis, have begun on Tuesday, February 6, as part of the project “Assistance in Implementing APC, OMC and EU-Moldova Action Plan”. The expert jurist of the ENP AP (European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan) project Sergiu Cebotari trusts that, after the Parliament passed the necessary official documentation, this process will be carried out more efficiently. He mentioned that the harmonisation of the Moldovan legislation started in 2005, when the EU-Moldova AP was signed, but without using systematised methods – corresponding table, assessment of the law impact, notification of compliance, which is to be issued by the future Centre for Law Harmonisation that will open within the Ministry of Justice. As Cebotari says, the ENP AP project has been providing assistance since April last year. In this respect, results have been registered when harmonising certain new bills regarding the functioning of the companies, joint stock companies, limited companies, internal trade, and consumer protection. These projects are to be approved this year and will be included in the first annual national Plan for Legislation harmonisation. The expert mentioned that Moldova will start reviewing the whole internal legislation, putting the emphasis on the compatibility of the new draft laws with the EU law. Head of the EU law Division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and European Integration Lilian Moraru stated that the projects of the documents necessary for making the Centre for Law Harmonisation operational have been already worked out. They are to be approved via a Government decision. The Centre’s main function will be to assist the relevant ministries in drawing up normative documents with relevance to the EU law. Moraru added that the process of working out the annual national Plan for Law harmonisation has already begun. The relevant ministries are requested to submit proposals for projects related to the normative and legislative documents. Subsequently, the proposals will be itemised in the national plan that will be presented to the Government for consideration.