PACE rapporteurs are interested if AIE will respect its commitments

The rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for Moldova Lise Christoffersen and Piotr Wach have come to Chisinau to find out whether the Alliance for European Integration (AIE) will respect its commitments towards the EU. On Tuesday the rapporteurs met with representatives of the Democratic, Liberal and Communist parliamentary groups. Head of the Democrats’ group Dumitru Diacov told Info-Prim Neo that he discussed with the rapporteurs about the situation in the country and that they were interested about how things went on in the ruling alliance. “We assured them that we would to our best to continue the started reforms. We also assured them we would carry out our mandate”, said Dumitru Diacov. The Liberal Party issued a press release, informing that the PL parliamentarians who met with PACE rapporteurs reiterated Moldova’s desire to finish the process of monitoring by the CoE and to advance to the post-monitoring stage. Head of the Liberals’ parliamentary group Ion Hadarca spoke about Moldova’s progress on its European path and listed the initiated reforms. “The opposition’s attempt to hinder our European progress is doomed to fail. AIE will continue to promote reforms, according to our government program, until we reach the goal of Moldova’s European integration”, he said. According to a PCRM press release, Vladimir Voronin told Lise Christoffersen and Piotr Wach that the current government didn’t take into consideration the recommendations of the Council of Europe. He labeled the ban on Communist symbols an unconstitutional decision that violated fundamental human rights and freedoms and limited the political activity of the opposition. He also rubbished the government's request for Moldova to be advanced to the post-monitoring stage. “We deem the ending of the monitoring process premature and dangerous”, stated Vladimir Voronin. After his meeting with the opposition, Lise Christoffersen told the press the role of rapporteurs was to observe and to report. “We don’t participate as actors in political talks. It’s not our role to make statements. You’ll have to wait for the report we’ll prepare for the Council of Europe and for the Parliamentary Assembly”, he said. The report will be ready in about a year. The rapporteurs also met with Prime Minister Vlad Filat, Speaker Marian Lupu and MP Igor Dodon. They will also have a meeting with the Liberal-Democratic group and then will draw the final conclusions of the fact-finding visit.