New PACE President's first visit will be to Moldova

The newly elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mevlut Cavusoglu will pay his first official visit after his appointment to Moldova, the head of the Moldovan delegation to this organization Ana Gutu said Tuesday. The Moldovan delegation had a meeting with the President of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio and the Commission's Deputy Secretary Thomas Markert. Gianni Buquicchio announced that on February 24 he will visit Chisinau and that the Venice Commission will help Moldova with the constitutional reform as it considers it necessary, Ana Gutu said. In March, the co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Commission will make a visit to Moldova to prepare the next report that will be presented at the April session of the PACE. “The major goal is now to obtain the post-monitoring status. This goal is achievable as many conditions from the previous resolutions were fulfilled and we hope these facts will be taken into consideration,” Gutu said. Next month, the Council of Europe will launch the Democratic Package program to support the democratic reforms in Moldova and the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict. Asked to comment on the accusations that the members of the delegation were elected non-democratically, made by the Communist MPs, Ana Gutu and other members denied them, saying four of the ten members of the delegation were to represent the Communist parliamentary group, but they refused to take part in the PACE session held during January 25-29.