Moldova managed to develop much better mechanisms for cooperation between civil society and the state institutions than Ukraine and Russia. Until recently, the public institutions in Moldova were used as instruments for exerting political influence. Now these institutions cooperate with the nongovernmental organizations that promote the public interests, the director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO) Sergiu Ostaf stated for IPN.
According to the CReDO director, there is an important qualitative development in the relations between civil society and the state institutions, compared with the previous period. “We want representatives of civil society in the Central Election Commission and other institutions. Anyway, if we compare the situation in the eastern countries, there is no such cooperation there,” he said.
Sergiu Ostaf also said that the functioning of the public institutions by communicating with civil society speaks about a more inclusive democracy that is more open to the people, and the situation in Moldova is not comparable to that in Ukraine from qualitative viewpoint. “If we compare the state of affairs in Moldova with the situation in the Western countries, I think that Moldova, by its diverse institutionalized forms, compares with Romania and even outruns it because the neighboring country does not have a National Participation Council, while the National NGO Council of Romania is not so active in the social sphere. I think that the situation on some of the segments in Moldova is better. We can compare ourselves with such countries as Hungary and Slovakia and are in a much better situation than Ukraine and Russia,” stated the CReDO director.
Sergiu Ostaf said that there are councils that become involved in the decision-making process and this thing influences the functioning of the state institutions. “Regretfully, the mechanism for selecting the representatives of civil society in these councils is yet very politicized, but the presence of civil society within them points to the public authorities’ openness and this thing will produce results in 2-3 years already,” he added.
